Bliss
by Eternal Contradiction
Summary: After a misunderstanding at a war tribunal, Zuko/Katara end up married. Can they accept being wedded to one another when obstacles keep falling in their path, thrown by keep-your-hands-off-my-sister Sokka, and their inability to accept mutual attraction?
1. Chapter 1: That's Not Irony, That's Just

_**Bliss**_

_Chapter 1: That's Not Irony, That's Just Sad_

x.x.x

"This is archaic!" Katara called out. "Fire Lord Zuko isn't the enemy. Other than the Avatar, he was the hero of the Final Battle. How can you even think to take away his freedom?"

"Quiet child."

"I will not be quiet! Look at the options you're giving him. Incarceration or marriage. He loses his freedom in both of those and he's done nothing but help end a century of tyranny."

"Avatar, shut your woman up or I will have you both forcefully removed from the room."

"Katara," Aang warned, putting his hand over hers.

She yanked her fingers away from his grasp and glared at him and then at the room in general, but she held her tongue. Reason hit her that Zuko would probably need allies in this negotiation, and she and Aang were the only sure ones he had.

"I have a sister," the Earth King said uncertainly. "She's older than me and unmarried. Has a harelip."

Katara flinched, unable to see Zuko with a thirty-five year old spinster with a clef in her lip. It was just wrong. She couldn't take her eyes off the prince, waiting for a reaction. She almost expected him to jump up, pound the table and shout about the injustice or to rub his face with a hand in resignation and sigh. He did neither.

Zuko was staring straight ahead, not giving any reaction and Katara realized that he was playing the political game and not showing any weakness or his thoughts. So far, she had been able to identify two aspects to Zuko's persona, the hot-headed prince and the earnest pauper. This Zuko was far better at playing politics than either of his past faces had been. It was yet another transformation and it was intriguing.

"Do we have any other candidates?" the adjudicator asked.

"I have a young niece whose betrothed died in the attack on the Northern Water Tribe last year. Unfortunately, as an eight year old, the Fire Lord would not be permitted to take her from her home until her fourteenth birthday." Chief Arnook did not look happy at the idea of his niece marrying the Fire Lord, but even at this distance his ambition was clear: create concrete links between Fire and the North tribe and his people would be safe if the Fire Nation turned.

"Shall we put this to a vote?"

Katara's stomach clenched. A baby. Zuko still hadn't reacted yet, so Katara allowed her gaze to wander around the room, trying to figure out what the other people were thinking. She recognised a few leaders, the Earth King, Bumi, and Chief Arnook among them, but there were other representatives of the Earth Nation she didn't recognise.

This was obviously not a fairly divided and unpartial group. Zuko had tried to explain to her that the purpose of the tribunal was to find a reasonable solution to the necessity of forcing the Fire Lord to atone for his family's sins. He told her that if Ozai had been put in front of them, the rulings would be far harsher than they were, but so far he was forced to pay each nation for his crimes – great sums of money that Katara couldn't even begin to fathom.

Zuko hadn't even blinked.

He had, however, promised to pay the Southern Water Nation an equal amount as he paid the Northern Water Nation, all without her stupid brother there to negotiate.

It didn't come as a surprise to her that Aang, the only air tribe representative, didn't want any reparation money. Zuko promised him a staggering sum, claiming that the damage done to the Air Kingdom was the greatest, and that he realized no amount of money could make up for it, but he also believed that these payments should fairly represent harm-done instead of how many surviving leaders, cities and towns believed he owed them more.

It was a snide dig at the Earth Kingdom, and most of them took it with the grace to look ashamed in the face of the last air bender.

Some of them did not, and Katara found herself memorizing their faces for a later date.

Then came the part of the tribunal that surprised her the most. They were claiming that for Zuko to show continual good-faith to the people of the world, he should marry someone not of the Fire Nation.

And it came down to Zuko against the Earth Kingdom and Northern Water tribe, with no one to speak up for him. Aang's snores were soft as he napped though Katara attempting to gently jar his side, and Sokka hadn't even shown up as he promised.

That just left her.

"Excuse me?" Katara said loudly, interrupting the adjudicator mid-speech. "What about the Southern Water Tribe?"

"There's no representative of the South here," the man responded, dismissing her.

"I can represent the South," she said, her eyes narrowing at his indifferent tone.

"And who are you?" he asked, deliberately questioning her pedigree with that haughty look she was growing so familiar with.

Katara felt her hackles rise. "I am Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, certified Master Water Bender-"

"That title holds no merit here, in a room of noblemen and chiefs," the adjudicator informed her. "All in favour of—"

"I wasn't finished," Katara interrupted in a low voice which carried across the room and had every man turning to stare at her. Including Zuko. "Master Water Bender and Sifu to the Avatar-"

"That's all very impressive, dear. Now if we can get on to the matter at hand."

"Do not patronize me!" Katara growled. "And don't interrupt me when I'm speaking," she chided. "I am Sifu to Avatar Aang, and eldest most honourable daughter of Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe." She was furious now, tired of men thinking they were above her just because of her sex or because she was from the Southern, smaller tribe. She was sick of being looked down upon simply because of her age and sex. She had ranking in her own right, and she was damn well going to use it.

This blinding fury and pride was probably the reason for what she said next.

"And as representative of the Southern Water Tribe, I submit myself for candidacy."

The room roared in surprise.

"I second that!" The chief of the Northern Tribe called out, obviously pleased that he wouldn't have to sacrifice his sister's daughter but still marry Zuko off to a water tribeswoman.

"Third!" Bumi called out, cackling in glee. "She's a spitfire alright. Perfect for a Fire Lord."

"Fire Lord Zuko accepts," Iroh said, speaking for his nephew.

Zuko's eyes widened in shock and horror as he stared at Katara, not even noticing the proceedings going on around them. For her part, she was staring back, her world slowly sinking as every new voice added credence to her suggestion.

"Anyone have any issue?"

Katara poked Aang's side under the table, but he just groaned and moved his head to face the opposite direction.

"Motion passed!" the adjudicator called out, pointing at Zuko and Katara in turn. "I now pronounce you man and wife."

Zuko dropped his head into his hands. Katara was still gaping with her mouth open and her face turning an unattractive color of puce.

"What just happened," Aang asked, waking up as everyone started to clap.

x.x.x.x

Aang wouldn't stop bugging her, rubbing his eyes with his fists like a child before staring up at her, trust apparent in his eyes even as he looked around the room in confusion. The entire assembly weren't giving many hints to the sleepy airbender, and she was sure all he was able to tell was that something big happened.

Katara's stomach turned over in guilt, and suddenly Katara couldn't stand being in this room anymore. She bolted away from Aang, ignoring him as he called her name. She made it up the steps and through the doors of the tribunal room.

The guards straightened from their game of Element Connex and came to attention as she passed. Katara stopped, drawing in a shaky breath as she neared the doors to the outside. Just a few more steps and she would have freedom.

But she should go back and explain everything to Aang. He deserved to hear everything from her, and she had run away. He had looked so innocent when waking up, and even faced with the betrayal she saw his nap representing, she still couldn't crush him like that. When it came right down to it, she had run away to save herself from the emotional breakdrown and the guilt she knew she had to face.

It wasn't anyone else's responsibility but hers to explain to Aang what had happened. She was sure that he had heard by now, the room had been buzzing with the news.

Hesitantly, Katara wondered if she should walk back into the tribunal room and face Aang. That would be the responsible thing to do. By now he must know, and she couldn't face the expression of betrayal on his face on top of everything else. She wasn't sure if she could get through any confrontations without breaking down and sobbing.

What had she done?

In the time since she paused, two guards approached her, blocking her escape.

"Let me past!" Katara demanded.

"Sorry," guard one said.

"No can do," said guard two.

"Oh really?" Katara asked, desperate enough to make her escape that she began searching for a water source. Due to the peaceful nature of the talks she had just attended, all weapons had been left behind due to lawful decree, and bending of any kind was strictly forbidden.

Of course, she technically was no longer participating in the tribunal, and the tall vase of flowers to her left would be an excellent source.

Guard one had the sense to look nervous. Her reputation must have preceded her.

"The Fire Lord asked that we detain you," guard two explained as he opened a door, ushering her inside.

"Fine," Katara spoke, "but don't let anyone else know I'm here."

"Yes my lady."

Once alone, Katara was able to separate the itchy feeling crawling just under her skin that prompted her to flee Aang. There was guilt, of course, and it felt almost unforgivable to think what she had done to him, and was still doing to him by not talking to him in person. But her reaction was not all about Aang, it was also about Zuko and the surprising smugness she felt for being the one to save him this time.

She had done it, Katara reflected, a small smile on her face.

She waited for him, pacing a bit. This marriage to him was a charade at best, and she was sure he would agree with her on that. While they were comfortable as friends, she didn't see how either of them would be able to fake attraction to one another for very long. She could see exactly how they had to handle this situation with clarity. In a few months they could break off any form of engagement or attachment to one another, and he would be free.

And so would she.

It was a good plan. So good, her name deserved an added title - Katara, rescuer of Fire Lords. Really, Zuko wouldn't get anywhere if it weren't for her.

Just as she was plotting how she would tell Sokka of her plan, conveniently leaving out the sham part of the marriage so she could see his eyes bug out of his head, Zuko entered the room. His back was stiff and he barely acknowledged her presence as he made his way over to one of the chairs in the room. His shoulders seemed to droop the further into the room he stepped.

"Aha!" Katara crowed at him. "This is possibly the biggest irony ever. The lowly peasant girl just saved your ass. With her lowly peasant status."

Zuko flung himself backwards into a chair and turned his face up to her, his eyes closed. Katara was surprised to see pity on his face once he opened his eyes rather than disdain or any kind of ire at her words. "You don't understand what you did, do you?"

"I stopped you from having to choose jail," she said simply.

"No," he told her with a sigh. "Oh Katara, what have you done?"

"It's ok, it's ok," Katara intoned as she paced the room. "I have a plan." Zuko was watching her from the chair he sprawled in, his gaze changing from the despair of an entrapped person to one of interest as she continued. "We'll just have a long engagement and after they start to trust you more than they do now, we'll break it off."

"Katara," he said gently. "According to law, we're already married. Any ceremonies after this will simply be to cement public relations with our people."

"What?" she yelled, stopping in front of him. "But I can't be married to you. I don't want to marry you! I don't want to marry anyone."

Zuko's lips twitched. "You're the one who spoke up."

"But I didn't want to MARRY you!" Katara said emphatically. "I just didn't want you to marry anyone else."

Zuko's eyebrows winged up and a smile appeared on his face. "Reeally?" he asked.

"All I mean is that I didn't want you to be forced into some loveless marriage to someone you don't know."

Zuko was leaning towards her now, eying her like a predator spotting weakness in his prey. "So you offered yourself instead?" He reached forward, taking her hand in his and tugging. Katara moved towards him easily, stopping when she was in front of him and he was looking up at her. "Tell me Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, why did you react so strongly against the idea of me marrying someone else."

Katara shook her head in denial. "You wouldn't have been happy with a child bride or a woman almost passed childbearing years."

"No. I wouldn't have been. But why did you think I'd be happier with you?" his thumb gently rubbing circles across her knuckles. He said this so softly that Katara didn't even think to take the words as an accusation.

"We're friends," she told him with a frown, wondering what he was getting at. "Don't think for one second that it's anything more than that. I don't love you. Some days I barely even like you."

"You little fool," he hissed, his eyes suddenly showing the fury she had expected from him during the whole situation. "Do you understand what you've done? The reason they offered inappropriate brides was because they WERE inappropriate, and I was within my right to annul the process after a suitable amount of time. Everyone in that room seemed to know that. Everyone but you."

She stared at him, her eyes wide as he held her gaze. His eyes were forceful as he drilled the point home.

"You've just forced both of us into an eternity in a loveless marriage."

Katara stumbled backwards, completely missing the regret on his face for revealing the information so harshly. He held tight to her hand, coming to his feet and stopping her movements as she tried to get away from him.

"No," she told him, shaking her head. "No. I didn't mean to."

Zuko's expression softened as he drew her into a tight hug. "I know," he said against her hair. "We'll figure something out."

* * *

A/N: Oh Zuko and Katara, you guys get yourselves into the worst misunderstandings 3 And you just know by "figure something out" that there will be ninja!Zutara missions in their future.

I hope everyone enjoyed this first chapter. I know we all need some pick-me-ups now that the movie has been released (though I haven't had the fortune of seeing it yet). Has anyone enjoyed it? Are there good Zutara moments? I will totes see it for that. I also encourage spoilers.


	2. Chapter 2: Who Needs Enemies?

**Bliss**

_Chapter 2: Who Needs Enemies When You Can Have Friends Like This?_

.x.x.x.x.

Katara stalked down the hallway, not in the mood to talk to anyone. Her fingers were clutched into fists, and there was almost a visible cloud of smoke over her head. It was almost fitting for an instance when water put out fire. She was angry and confused, and it really didn't help her disposition that people kept smirking at her, and if they weren't smirking at her, they were bowing to her and showing her signs of respect they hadn't bothered with before she had gotten herself hitched to the Lord of Fire.

To make matters worse, she now had to go find Aang. She really should never have run off on him. It was just prolonging the inevitable, which would probably lead to tears and declarations of heart break.

Maybe she could just run away and avoid both of them. She could find some lake somewhere and revisit her water spirit identity.

"Fire Lady," the guard in front of her suite bowed. Before, the door had held the air nomad tribe symbol to signify who occupied the set of rooms within, but now it held both the air and the fire insignia. For a moment she felt her blood boil with rage, but then realized how lucky she was that she was still able to stay in the same room she had been in before, sharing the suite with Aang and the usual suspects with the exception of Zuko and the Fire Nation contingency.

It could be a lot worse. She could have been forced to move in with Zuko.

She gave the guard a kick in the shins on her way in.

It didn't make her feel better, if anything she felt worse for inflicting pain on an innocent guard.

She found Aang sitting against the wall in the sitting room, his legs drawn into lotus position.

"Aang," she said softly, crouching onto one of the floor pillows in front of him. She didn't settle in, her subconscious thinking she wouldn't get the chance to talk to him. Aang wasn't in confrontational mode, he had already bypassed that and was deep into avoidance.

"Is it true?" He asked, one of his blue eyes opening and focusing on her.

Katara didn't bother playing stupid, it was insulting to both of them. "Yeah, I've been given to Zuko in marriage."

"Oh? I heard you volunteered," Aang said, closing his eye. The tone was definitely a dismissal, but Katara wasn't one to let someone else have the last word, especially when it was so passively defamatory to her character.

"I didn't know this was going to happen. It just didn't seem fair to expect Zuko to marry one of those other offerings when he was the one who turned the tide of the war in our favour."

"I thought I was the one who did that," Aang responded in a quiet, saddened voice. "Please leave, I'm trying to meditate."

Katara didn't say anything in response, she just snapped to her feet and stalked out of the room and towards the bedroom she shared with Suki and Toph. Neither of them were in right now, and Katara flopped on the bed, exhausted by the idea she was going to have to inform everyone else about her mistake.

At least Sokka freaking out would probably bring temporary relief to her grief. She could just imagine his face.

A few hours later Katara awoke to the sound of dishes rattling. Groaning, she lifted her head a fraction of an inch, noting that the sun had started a drastic descent in the sky. She knew from experience that the noises coming from the common room outside the door were that of the workers setting up the supper buffet. In a few minutes she was going to have to go out there and face everyone.

She wasn't sure she was strong enough to do that.

Standing, Katara looked in the mirror, noting how rumpled her clothes and hair looked after her sleep. She knew her rest hadn't been quiet, but agitated, and it hadn't left her feeling any more relaxed. She hadn't been able to get away from Zuko's stupid face, replaying the moment she realized they were bound together in marriage over and over again in her nightmares.

As she was staring at her reflection in the mirror, wondering why it was she looked the same but felt like an entirely different person, a soft knock rapped on the door.

She ignored it.

Suki stuck her head in the room, her eyes softening in pity as she took in Katara. "It's just me," she said, swiftly entering the room and shutting the door firmly behind her. "Toph and I were down in the city when the news reached us."

Katara groaned, sitting back on her mattress pad with her hands over her eyes. Everyone knew now. By this time tomorrow the news would probably have spread across borders and by the end of the week it would arrive at her father's doorstep.

Suki sat next to her. "It isn't the end of the world."

"Isn't it!" Katara asked, voice perilously close to a wail. "Zuko represents everything I can't stand, and I thought you felt the same. He embodies the Fire Nation, the enemy who enslaved our people, killed our warriors and slaughtered hundreds, maybe thousands of helpless civilians. I can't be married to evil."

Suki gave her a fierce look. "I could fix this problem for you, if you let me. Security here is lax compared to what it was during the war. I could easily sneak into his suite and kill him. He's cunning and quick, but if you slip something into his food it will put him right to sleep. He'd trust you, so it would be easy. Then we can both dispose of him any way you want and get revenge for our people. He's a murderer, Katara. He deserves it."

"No! He's not a bad person! Hasn't he done enough to atone for the mistakes he made as a child?"

Suki surprised her by grinning. "That's right, pull your head out of your ass and keep it out," Suki chided. "Just because you've found yourself in a position you didn't expect yourself to be in doesn't mean you have to diminish Zuko's achievements. Just this morning you were singing praise of Zuko and the Fire Nation for trying to recompense for the century of pain they caused. Which is it Katara? What do you really believe?"eH

"I don't know," she responded. "Everything is so muddled in my head right now. It's easier to blame Zuko as the villain of this than blame myself."

Suki nodded soberly. "Yes, exactly, Little Sister."

"Oh Suki," Katara said, her voice quiet and full of heartbreak. "I don't hate him, and I don't want to vilify him, I mean I've mostly forgiven him for what he's done to me, to all of us, but I don't love him."

Suki put her arm around Katara, pulling her in close for a hug. "Don't you?"

"Of course not!" Katara responded with a gasp. "Is that what you think? What everyone thinks?"

"No, no, you're right. Of course you don't love him," Suki soothed.

"I don't!" Katara said hotly.

"And you don't find him attractive, especially when he moves more graceful than any man should be allowed to."

"Exactly."

"And when you're staring at his face it's because you're looking at his scar."

"Yes. I mean no! I don't even notice it when I'm staring at him. I don't stare at him!"

Suki patted her knee and laughed. "Think about it," she said, still grinning as she left the room but it was the last thing Katara wanted to think about.

Five minutes later and Katara was back out in the common room, the tear tracks dried off her cheeks. She'd rather face Aang and their little band of friends than contemplate any of the things Suki had brought up.

When she came out of the bedroom, her friends went quiet, Aang looking away from her sharply. Toph on the other hand stared at her with open hostility.

They were all watching her as she stood uncertainly in the doorway. Three people she included as the closest things she had to a family outside of the Southern Water Tribe, and the only one who was meeting her eyes without animosity was Suki, the one person of the group she hadn't had a great deal of time to get to know.

Why couldn't she have just kept her big mouth shut? She felt her world sinking as she stood there, and she wanted to skulk back into the bedroom and hide. Unfortunately, she had to share the room with the other girls, so her privacy would be short lived. Plus, this wasn't something she should avoid. She had done that with Aang, and now everything was worse than it could have been.

Katara wasn't sure how telling Aang immediately would have helped, but she was sure that if she had stuck around in the tribunal room and hadn't allowed him to be waylaid by the news, it wouldn't be this bad.

Would it?

To make matters worse there was a knock on the door as she stood there in a stare-down with Toph.

Yeah, she knew how that sounded. Blind kid. Stare down.

One of the guards standing in the room moved towards the door and opened it. A woman stepped in, fully decked out in the Fire Nation regalia that represented the delegates who accompanied Zuko to the Tribunal. Katara knew Zuko's government was currently up in the air. He didn't know who to trust from his father's old administration.

She was inclined to distrust all of them. For some reason Zuko didn't fire everyone who ever spoke to his father. He kept talking about it being necessary to continue good relations.

Eying the woman in red and black suspiciously, her fingers twitching with the need to pull the water on the table towards her. This woman with her tightly pulled back black hair and pale skin embodied everything Katara hated. She knew the women of the Fire Nation to be deceitful and deadly as well as beautiful, and Katara didn't like the idea of Zuko being anywhere near her.

Who knew whether she'd stab him in the back?

"Your majesty," Future Back Stabber said, sweeping into a low bow. Katara could hear the sneer on her lips and knew the Fire Nation delegate thought her to be just as repugnant. In the Fire nation costume, her straight posture looked particularly severe as she looked the water bender right in the eye.

Katara gave her a wan smile. Both of them were mirroring the same ungenuine expression. "What do you want?"

"The Fire Lord requests that you are reminded that his convoy is leaving at the noon hour. He expresses his desire for you to accompany him onto the ship and expects you in his suite at thirty minutes to the hour."

Katara was opening her mouth to dress down this woman for ordering her to do anything when she continued.

"Your friends are expected to proceed to the ship as planned."

The woman bowed again and backed out of the room quickly, leaving everyone staring at Katara in shock. Katara was glad the woman was gone before she was able to respond and claim Zuko was a high handed bastard whose orders she wasn't going to take.

And really, that wouldn't be the smartest thing to do. It would actually be right up there with offering herself up as his wife in terms of stupid.

Now wasn't the time to question Zuko's authority in front of people he didn't even trust within his own government. He had warned her to be careful, but sometimes Katara's hot head and quick mouth got ahead of her sense.

That being said, she would have to figure out how to be firm and authoritative in front of his underlings if they were going to pull off getting unhitched at some point in the future.

Her friends were still staring at her, the temperature in the room decreasing exponentially. Aang had finally taken his eyes off his plate to give her a heart wrenching look of betrayal.

Really, she liked it better when he was ignoring her.

"I can't be here with her," Toph spat. "Come on Aang, let's go."

"Toph!" Katara exclaimed in surprise. She felt like she couldn't handle this on top of everything else, so in typical Katara fashion her back went up and she faced Toph. "I didn't do this deliberately. Do you think I wanted this? That I like being bowed to and ordered around by the Fire Nation with no recourse but to obey? What will it take for you, for all of you, to understand that this wasn't my choice."

"Oh really?" Toph asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "Answer me yes or no _Princess._ Did you offer to be Zuko's wife, because that's what the word on the street is – that you asked for this."

Katara didn't respond, just averted her eyes. The way Toph enunciated the word princess made it sound like the most vulgar of curses, and Katara was overcome by shame. With the anger and indignation fleeing her body, she was left with nothing to say, and no way to communicate all the things she should say.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Toph proclaimed. "Come _on_ Aang, let's make like a boulder and smash this party."

Aang simply shook his head, back to focusing on his food.

"Eugh!" Toph exclaimed in exasperation as she jumped to her feet. "She doesn't care for you. If she did, she never would have done this."

Aang kept his eyes on his tofu stir-fry.

"That's not true!" Katara exclaimed to unheeding ears.

Toph stomped to the door, turning around to get one last parting shot in. "Both of you make me sick. When you come to your senses Twinkle Toes, I'll be around." Her unseeing eyes focused on Katara with unnerving accuracy. "You're dead to me."

Katara sat down at the table, unable to breathe. She felt like the room was closing in on her and all the air was being sucked out. No one else seemed to realize that there wasn't any oxygen, and they were seconds away from suffocating.

Just her.

Suki's hand was on her shoulder for the briefest of touches, comforting Katara more than a simple touch should have. When had Suki become the mother hen of the group, Katara wondered? That had been her position before she had gone and betrayed them all trying to save one.

"They'll come around," Suki told her. "No matter what anyone else says, it was a brave thing you did today Katara. I'll go talk to Toph."

Katara nodded. Once Suki left the room, Katara moved closer to Aang. "We need to talk."

"There's nothing to say," Aang told her, his voice sounding so young and heartbroken.

"Aang! What was I supposed to do? Zuko's our friend." Katara placed her hand on Aang's arm in a comforting gesture. She wanted to tell him it wasn't a real marriage, but if it was overheard by one of the servants and got back to any one of the members of the tribunal, Zuko's punishment would probably be imprisonment. That was one of the ground rules Zuko had been sure to press into her thick skull.

"Nothing," Aang told her, extricating himself from her grasp and continuing to eat his food like she wasn't there.

"Guess what I did today!" Sokka exclaimed as he ran into the room, ignoring the tension between Katara and Aang. Before either of them could guess – or possibly because he actually was accurately reading the dropped temperature in the room – he went on without allowing either of them the chance to talk. "I found someone who scavenged the wrecked Fire-Air ships and got a lead on my space sword, and then I tracked down a hooker who sold it for a certain procedure she wasn't too clear on, and I found the guy and TahDah!" Sokka pulled his sword out from behind his back. "Swordy."

"Ah huh," Aang said.

"Why don't you have some food," Katara suggested, pointing to the buffet-like spread on the side table.

"Guess what Katara did today," Aang suggested.

Katara kicked him beneath the table as Sokka filled up a plate. "Is it better than me finding this hard molten rock I worked over by hand until it yielded to my touch?"

"Well," Katara said, eying Aang warningly. "You know that you missed the tribunal today, right? The one where Zuko was put on trial for his family's warcrimes?"

"Oh yeah," Sokka said, sitting down and munching down on a drumstick. "That was today?"

"You were supposed to be there as a representative of the Southern Water Tribe!" Katara pointed out with her teeth clenched. "You promised dad! I had to step in."

Sokka shrugged. "No harm done then. Right? Zuko's ok?"

Aang snorted softly.

Katara turned her ire onto the airbender. "And you, you were sleeping while the whole decision hanged in the balance. I needed both of you and you were sleeping and you were off chasing down an inanimate object."

Sokka took another bite of meat. "Shh. He'll hear you."

"What kind of friends are you two? Am I the only one who cares?"

"I care!" Aang yelled back.

"Mmmm," Sokka reflected thoughtfully. "I don't. Zuko's a big boy. He can take care of himself."

"I'm glad you think so," Katara said nonchalantly, gleefully watching his face for a reaction as she broke the news to him in a casual tone. The whole situation wasn't quite worth it for this moment, but it was a close call. "Because I got married to him today."

Sokka flicked his arm in dismissal. "Nice try."

"She's not joking," Aang shouted, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest, an unhappy look on his face.

"Sokka," Katara said gently. "I tried to defend Zuko from having to marry an 8 year old and the tribunal declared me his wife instead."

Sokka looked back and forth between Aang and Katara. "No," he said, a grin on his face and food still in his mouth. "No way." His smile disappeared.

"Swallow," Katara urged with a cringe, but he ignored her.

Sokka's head was bouncing between the two of them as though he were watching a ping-pong match. Only neither of them were moving, they simply stared at him. "No!" he said desperately.

Katara nodded. "Watch this." She beckoned towards a guard standing to the side of the room. "Is everything secure – security-wise?"

"Yes Fire Lady," the grey-clad, nationless guard said.

Sokka choked on the mouthful of food that had been stagnant in his mouth for the last two minutes.

"I told you to swallow," Katara said with irritation, but her mouth twitched in hidden amusement.

Sokka started making gagging noises, clawing at his throat as he tried to formulate words accompanied by wild gestures.

"Do you know the Heimlich?" Katara asked the guard.

"No Fire Lady," the guard intoned.

Sokka shot him a look of pure hatred.

Katara stood and grabbed her brother, yanking him out of the chair he had slumped in and balling her fist around his waist. She violently jerked at him a few times before a wad of masticated food flew out of his mouth and bounced off the guard's armour.

"Sorry about that," Katara said, waving back the hovering soldier. "We're fine now."

Sokka made a strangled sound.

"What did he say?" Katara asked Aang.

Aang stubbornly remained silent, still sending her that betrayed look he had adopted that afternoon. Katara was sure she'd be seeing a lot more of it in the future. It made something inside her shrivel a little at the thought that her whole life and future was ruined because of one small mistake she made.

"I said," Sokka responded, finally having caught his breath. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

Katara backed up a step, allowing Sokka to jump to his feet and round on her, a look of fury on his face. More importantly he looked guilty, which gave Katara some satisfaction. He pointed his finger at her. "You," he exclaimed, searching for the words. "You little betrayer girl thing you. How COULD YOU! I was supposed to get married first!"

Katara's eyebrows winged upwards towards her hairline. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"You HEARD me!" Sokka yelled. "I'm the older brother. Ergo, I should marry first." He jabbed his finger at her only to be tackled back by her guard.

Sokka hit the floor, twitching in a stunned way with his finger pointing up towards the ceiling.

Katara turned towards the guard with a disapproving frown.

He shrugged. "Lord Zuko said no one's to touch you."

Katara's eye twitched. This was no longer amusing, not in the least. She didn't know why she thought it ever could be. "I don't need some hulking muscle to save me, especially from my brother. You understand that? I could bring you down with a flick of my fingers."

She stormed out of the room. It was time to find her darling husband and put an end to this foolishness.

But she quickly found out that after years of him showing up at every turn with his stupid fire bending, his stupid laugh, and his stupid hair, he was surprisingly adept at hiding from her.

* * *

A/N: How many of you are on Twitter? I have a new account solely for fanfic updates, sneak peeks, and story discussion, so please follow me at _EternalCon. _ I can't wait to hear from you!

I still haven't seen the movie, thanks to everyone for telling me what they thought of it.

Did I do Sokka's reaction justice? It's not quite finished yet; he still has to confront Zuko. **Evil grin.**


	3. Chapter 3: Avoidance is Best

**_Bliss_**

_Chapter 3: Avoidance is Best_

* * *

It was a two day journey back to the Fire Capital. Before the tribunal, Katara's plans had been to travel back with Zuko and see what she could do to help injured soldiers and prisoners of war too ill to travel after their release.

It was only fair. She had done the same thing in the Earth Kingdom just after the final battle, and truth be told, with all their warmongering and the damage done during the final battle, the fire nation needed her more. She'd heard a lot of dissent from the Earth Nation when she informed them of this idea and they tried to order her to stay, believing they owned her. She belonged to no one, though technically for the next three months she belonged to the sick and injured soldiers of the Fire Nation, and she intended to do all she could for them.

She just hadn't expected to return as wife of the Fire Lord.

That morning she had awoken early and found a secluded spot in the courtyard next to the fountain. She needed to work through the calming motions of water bending, in order to feel the healing power of the water not only caress her skin but also her soul. Eventually the familiar motions carried all the rage and hurt away in gentle laps of the tide and Katara began to feel rejuvenated again after a sleepless night.

By the time she was done, a few people had wandered from their quarters to watch her move gracefully through the last leg of her routine. It didn't surprise her, as not many of them had seen a Master Water Bender before, though as she scanned the courtyard mid-movement, she thought she could detect a few members of the Northern Water Tribe, watching her with thoughtful expressions. She shrugged it off. When she had left her quarters she knew that she wouldn't have privacy anywhere while people were still gathered for the tribunal. Sacrificing her privacy was a trade she was willing to make to ensure she had the stimulation to complete the day ahead.

Katara ignored the smattering of applause as she finished bending the water with nary a splash as she set it back down in the fountain. She was about to turn back to the door leading to her suite when one men from the Earth Nation's retinue whistled at her.

"You've got some moves there, girly. You want to share them with me some time?" He made a lewd gesture.

Every time, Katara groaned to herself in embarrassment. She had worn more clothes than she usually did whilst bending just to discourage those kinds of thoughts, and the sleeves of her tunic were damp from the pervading water. She'd dispel any remaining dampness once in the privacy of her own room, wary of showing people the fine measure of control it took to lift water from every crevice of her skin and clothes at once. In fact, she had been very careful to make sure none of the bending she put on display this morning had belied the strength of her skills.

Unfortunately, water bending was graceful and sensuous, which made her think that maybe the Northern Water Tribe had more reasons for discouraging women to use the arts than bald-faced misogyny.

It wasn't her fault that every time she bended in public that some guy with a loud mouth made a pass at her.

She really hadn't meant to make a spectacle of herself, or make anyone insinuate things about her moral character that were untrue, but she knew well enough by now that the best course of action was to ignore perverts, especially in a crowd.

Unfortunately, Fire Nation guards chose that moment to step between her and the depraved soldier propositioning her and all rationality fled out the window.

Without a word, she flicked her hand opened, the water in the fountain parting into two separate waves. By the time they hit both the Earth Nation man who first offended her and Zuko's brethren, the water was ice cold. Turning on her heel, she stomped into the suite she was sharing with her friends and out the door, nursing her ire as she approached the Fire Nation's rooms.

His guards took one look at her and swung the doors open, anticipating the fact she wasn't going to stop for anyone. It made her more furious to think they were treating her with the same deference they treated Zuko. By all rights they should be barring her entry to see their king, considering the dangerous look on her face and her reputation. Before yesterday they would have.

This was ridiculous!

"I can take care of myself!" she yelled at Zuko, spotting him meditating in one of the corners of the room.

He simply raised an eyebrow at her, ordering the three other people within hearing distance to leave with just a wave of his hand. They all wordlessly got up and left without argument, following his command.

"And another thing," she seethed, knowing in the back of her mind that she was starting on an irrational campaign against him, but unable to stop. "You will not order me around like you do everyone else."

"When have you ever listened to me?" he asked mildly, gracefully surging to his feet in one smooth movement she couldn't quite follow. After sitting for long periods of time, such as meditation, Katara usually gained her footing as awkwardly as her grandmother, getting on her knees first and then making Sokka give her a hand. What he had just done seemed unfathomable and possibly not even human.

"You. Will. Not," she repeated, punctuating every word.

Zuko sighed. "In a Fire Nation marriage we are considered equals. There isn't as much divide between men and women as you're used to, though a lot of the traditional roles are still in practice because they are effective. But I am not a regular Fire Nation man. I am the Fire Lord, and as Lord there will be times that I will have to give orders, and you will obey them."

Katara's nostrils flared with anger and she tilted her chin up stubbornly.

"You don't have to like it Katara. I welcome your input. I respect you and I expect you to respect me."

"I'd respect you more if you weren't being such dictating dickhead."

"I'm not dictating! I'm trying to explain to you that you can't say things like that to me in public, it will cause dissent among my subjects and make me look weak. When we're in private you can treat me however you want, but in public there are certain rules you have to follow. I figured I would have to give you warning in advance to give it time to sink into your thick skull."

"Why don't you sink this into your thick skull," Katara retorted, giving him a rude gesture she'd seen boys in the Earth Nation use.

"Why don't you learn your place!" he snapped back at her.

"Some equality you have there, Fire Lord." Katara used his title like it was the foulest of curses. "You don't respect me, you want to own me. I'm not a piece of chattel. I'm a Master Water Bender, and in terms of bending skills mine far exceed-"

"Katara," Zuko snapped, interrupting her mid-rant. He had his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as if she were giving his sinuses added pressure. "Are you sure you want to go there? The last time you listed your qualifications you ended up married. What's left for you to lose?"

Nothing, she realized. She had nothing left to lose. Her friends hated her, her family would probably disown her for marrying the enemy, and now she didn't even have her freedom of will, since Zuko seemed determined to take that away.

He must have seen something in her expression because his confrontational pose melted away into a more relaxed posture and he took her hand again, an action that was quickly becoming synonymous with comfort. "I should have known better to bring this up when you were aiming for a fight. We may not agree on everything, but we're in this together, if anyone can understand, it is me. Is it your friends?"

She nodded, looking down at their feet. His stupid Fire Nation slippers with the little curled toes almost made her smile, and they were resting closely to her own bare feet. Why was she going around bare foot, she wondered. Surely she had slippers somewhere too. Maybe he would give her a pair of Fire Nation ones so she could scrub the floors with them while dragging her feet wherever he ordered her. The thought made her two parts angry and one part amused, and she tried to hold on to the amusement but it slipped away.

"They're horrible," she said finally. "Toph is the worst. I've never seen her this furious, she's usually so relaxed about everything. I swear she hates me."

"She doesn't," Zuko promised.

"No," Katara said, her eyes wide and vulnerable as they snapped up to meet his. She wasn't going to cry. She really wasn't, but if there was ever a time for sobbing, it would be now. "She really does. She just radiates with more than simple anger and I don't understand why she's so angry. I just don't."

"How's Aang?"

"Quiet. There's a possibility he cried himself to sleep last night."

"Sokka?"

"Eh. He might have been the one crying."

Zuko snorted and suddenly she couldn't entirely hate him. These people were his friends too, and any reaction they had to her, they were having to him. It was probably worse for him, wondering if lines were being drawn and sides taken so that they would choose her instead of him. He was the newest to the group, therefore the one with the shallowest connections and she wondered if he was feeling as betrayed as she was by all this anger.

It was just a marriage. She hadn't even married outside of their group of friends, so it wasn't as if she was being disloyal to the group as a whole. They had kept it within the family so to speak, hadn't they?

None of their friends had the right to be angry with them.

Suddenly she was furious and it wasn't at Zuko.

"What are you thinking?" Zuko asked, giving her a wary look.

Katara was about to respond harshly when one of the delegates knocked on the door, the quick rapping sounding very efficient. Zuko looked between her and the door, his brow furrowing with impatience. "Yes?" he finally called out.

A man popped his head in the door, lowing his eyes so he wasn't looking directly at either of them. Katara wasn't sure if it was due to respect or because there was something shifty about him. Of course, he could just be shy too. Katara didn't like making snap judgments on people based on little fact, but the truth of the matter was she did it all the time.

"The convoy is packed, Fire Lord. We will depart when you are ready."

"Are my friends on board?" Katara asked, willing to put aside the fact she was currently angry with the group. Zuko and Suki were right when they said this would blow over, and she couldn't leave her surrogate family behind just because there were some hard feelings between them, even if it would be easier to go the Fire Nation alone.

The man ignored her. Katara knew she had asked the question loud enough, so unless he was hard of hearing, it was a deliberate snub.

Definitely something shifty.

"Answer her, Makiz," Zuko ordered in a tone that booked no argument.

"The Avatar and guests are currently waiting your arrival."

Katara felt herself relax immediately. She hadn't realized she was worried they wouldn't come with her until that moment. She needed them now more than ever, even if her emotions seemed to be all over the place today. In her gratitude, she gave Makiz a big smile, forgetting about the fact he didn't seem to like her.

"Shall we?" Zuko asked, offering her his arm. Despite the fact that she knew they were about to show a unified front, she didn't expect the amount of people who were present to show them off. It seemed like every single person who had been in that tribunal room watched and evaluated every step she took and every move she and Zuko made together.

He had told her that the best way for them to get out of this mess was to appear as though they were actually attempting to get along as a married couple. Then, if they turned out unsuited, it wouldn't be because of lack of trying and an annulment would be possible. Katara deferred to his political knowledge, since her own was why they were married in the first place.

So she held her head up as she and Zuko lead a parade of his underlings towards the airship they were travelling in. Be a lady, she reminded herself, smiling at one of the Earth Nation mayors they had come across travelling during the war. Her fingers were digging into Zuko's bicep, and would probably leave bruises despite his thick robe. He was so stiff with stress it felt like she was walking with a tree.

"I hope our friends aren't watching this," she hissed at him. It wasn't a total surprise to her that they were on display like this. After she received the message from him the night before, she realized he had wanted her with him for some reason, and this had been one of the scenarios she had come up with.

"I doubt they can get any angrier at this point," Zuko responded in a way that wasn't comforting at all.

He was definitely wrong, so she said a little prayer that they weren't seeing this, though she wasn't sure how they could miss it.

"This is a good thing Katara," he told her through her smile. "They are showing respect to me as the Fire Lord on a personal level, but they are also telling me that the tribunal was a success and that I am considered an ally. If there was no one here to watch me depart, it would send the message that they do not care whether I am leaving or not."

Katara grunted that she understood.

"They aren't here for me, they're here for you."

She looked up at him in surprise.

"You're well-respected, Katara," he told her, ushering her into the makeshift platform that operated on a pulley system to lift them into the air machine. Once they were both standing side by side, the platform started to rise along the side of the metal flying contraption. Katara resisted the urge to brace herself on the railing, knowing she was still being closely watched.

"I don't understand," she told him.

Zuko looked away from her and for a second she thought he might not explain. "I was in a precarious position. Even though I helped in the final battle, I also contributed directly in a great deal of the anguish suffered in recent memory. A lot of people saw my defection as a ploy to get rid of my father so I could take his place."

"But my motives are beyond reproach?" she asked, her mind moving quickly through the scenario he described. She wanted to accuse him of tricking her into marriage for her status as a hero of the war, but she was the one who spoke up. She couldn't even find any instances where he might have manipulated the situation, though she didn't see Zuko as being very underhanded these days. Except for a few exceptions, he was usually rather brutally honest about his motivations.

"Something like that," Zuko agreed. "Let's just say that because of who you are and your willingness to offer yourself as my bride, I am considered more trustworthy."

They reached the entrance to the airship and Zuko helped her off the platform and away from prying eyes. The ship they were staying in was the flagship of the convoy, many of his other delegates were travelling in the last two surviving vessels. Their accommodations were far more cramped. In the Fire Lord's personal ship she didn't even have to share a room with Toph and Suki, and her change in status had nothing to do with it.

She turned to tell him that she wasn't a pawn and she wasn't property, but he had moved away from her, down towards his personal quarters. It was then that she realized that even though they had fought, it wasn't over the issue she had first approach him to argue about. She was still no closer to making him promise to allow the guards not to interfere in her life while trying to 'protect' her under his orders, and she wondered if he had purposely deflected.

Katara scowled, turning in the opposite direction towards her own room.

He was smarter than he looked. Maybe he had manipulated her into marriage just by looking so pathetic that day at the tribunal that he tugged at her sympathetic side.

What a jerk.

x.x.x.x.

Takeoff wasn't as smooth as it was on Appa, the great machine groaning and shuddering as it lifted in the air from a combination of science and fire bending techniques. Katara stayed in her bunk, only vaguely worried the entire thing would crumble around her ears. She could hear someone getting sick from the jarring motion of the ship shaking, but she gritted her teeth and refused to throw up until it was over and the urge passed.

The converted war airship now felt extremely closed in, and though she had her own room, she was also aware there were four other passengers, three of them angry at her, who would know where to find her at a moment's notice. So to avoid confrontation, she grabbed a book and found an empty corner in the hull of the ship, hidden between a large wooden crate carrying supplies bartered from the Earth Nation and the trunk containing Zuko's official Fire Lord costume.

She thought it more likely she'd be able to lift the supply crate than the trunk containing all the metal and leather pieces that made him look impressive to a crowd of peasants, but like an overdressed idiot to his friends.

It was a good hiding place, though, and she enjoyed an hour or so of leisurely reading before Sokka found her.

"Katara?" Sokka called out, voice questioning as he entered the hull. "I know you're in here."

Katara was pretty sure he was lying and remained quiet.

"Katara?" he asked, checking behind a box. She could see the crown of his head as he dodged between luggage and material, picking his way through the compartment and checking all hiding places. Katara burrowed deeper into the crevice she was in, but resigned herself to the fact he would find her through sheer obstinacy rather than skill.

"There you are!" he crowed five minutes later as his head popped up over the back of Zuko's trunk. "Why didn't you answer me when I started calling for you?"

"I don't want to talk to you," she responded coldly, going back to her book.

"Well I want to talk to you," Sokka said, jumping into the small space with her. With him crouched beside her, there was barely enough room for both of them, and she battled the urge to push him over. All she needed was for them to get tangled up and unable to extract themselves until they had whatever heart-to-heart he was looking for.

Katara glared at him before looking away. Maybe if she ignored him long enough he would get the hint and go away.

"I'm sorry!" Sokka exclaimed. "I don't care if you marry first. This isn't a competition or anything." He laughed unconvincingly. "I just never thought you'd be happy marrying Zuko."

"I'm not happy," Katara informed him, suddenly burning with anger at the injustice of it all. Why did everyone think` she had done this by CHOICE? "Do you think I WANT to marry Zuko? For your information, I've been crying myself to sleep every night."

"You didn't look unhappy to me," Sokka muttered.

"What was that?" Katara asked in a shrill voice. "You think that just because I didn't look miserable when I told you, I wasn't feeling miserable? The highlight of the whole day was getting to see the look on your face, so yeah, I might have looked a little bit amused at the time but that was only because I knew you would overreact."

"Why can't you be a normal sister?" Sokka asked. "Most girls don't hide their emotions when they're unhappy. They let people know."

"Do you even understand women?" Katara asked incredulously, focusing in on the one thing she could see that would bring them off the topic of her nuptials. "I've always known you don't, but I thought Suki would have beaten that out of you by now. We ALWAYS hide our emotions from overgrown idiot boys."

"I'm trying to apologize here!" Sokka glared at her. "And you're not cooperating."

"You better apologize!" Katara said hotly. "I need my brother." Suddenly, she started to cry, hot tears welling in her eyes and pouring in streams down her face. She sniffed, overcome by emotions she hadn't known were beneath the surface of her anger. She didn't want everyone to hate her and stop talking to her. She needed her friends and the emotional support they were supposed to provide, but instead she was getting the cold shoulder.

Sokka saw the tears and looked around awkwardly for an escape.

"I'm married," Katara wailed. "To _ZUKO."_

"There, there," Sokka provided, patting her on the back in a show of brotherly concern.

Katara sobbed and threw herself against his chest and pressing her face against the front of his shirt. Despite his teenage/manly avoidance of all things female and emotional, Sokka tightened his arms around her shoulders and let her cry.

"Aang hates me, and I don't blame him," she blubbered. "Dad and Gran Gran will all be so disappointed in me."

"Nah, dad will be more furious at me for not stopping all this." Suddenly Sokka stiffened and went pale. "Oh Unmerciful Agni, this is all my fault."

Katara hiccupped and sniffed, finally stopped crying and pulled away from him. "Kind of slow on the updraw there, genius," she said, only half teasing. "I told you that yesterday."

Sokka looked more miserable than he had the time his boomerang didn't return to him. "I wasn't there when you needed me," he said, looking like he was on the verge of tears himself.

"I wasn't the one you should have been there for," Katara snapped. "You should have cared enough to support Zuko, and then you never would have had to be there for me."

This wasn't strictly true. Katara was sure that even if Sokka was in that tribunal room, he still would have found a way to mess up so that she ended up being the one married to Zuko. She wasn't sure how or why, but every time she went over different scenarios in her head, it always turned out with the same result.

Maybe because she'd rather end up his wife than see him in jail. It was all about acceptable losses and sacrifices.

Right?

"I failed you!" Sokka was still bemoaning right before he grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug. Katara let him, recognising it as something he needed rather than something he was doing to comfort her. He had done something very similar right after they left the Northern Water Nation.

The siblings continued to cling to one another until Katara's cheek became uncomfortably scratchy against Sokka's tear-dampened shirt, and his need for her to comfort him stopped being adorably big-brothery and started to become annoyingly self-centered when she was still the one married. To Zuko.

Katara just started to try disengaging herself from Sokka's needy clutches when something large and heavy knocked into them at a high speed, throwing them to the ground in an awkward tangle of limbs and curses. Katara's shoulder jarred violently against the side of the wooden crate, protected from getting majorly bruised only by Sokka's head hitting first.

"Euuugh," Sokka groaned.

"Get off me," Katara urged, glaring past him at what she quickly realized was Zuko, looking just as shocked as they felt. Luckily for him, he had landed on top and quickly scrambled into a crouch as far away from the Sokka Sandwich they had made for the split second after landing.

"What are you two doing here?" Zuko asked.

"I biht mah tong," Sokka whined.

"What are YOU doing here?" Katara asked Zuko, shoving at Sokka's shoulder as he slowly extricated himself from on top of her. "Would you get off me before I throw you off?"

"Pain," Sokka muttered, but moved quicker until the three of them were kneeling in the very confined space.

"I was... well, I was trying to... I..." Zuko stumbled, eyes shifting away from her. "I was trying to hide."

"From who?" Sokka asked, ignoring his pains for the more interesting goal of having something to mock Zuko for.

"Well, from you two actually," Zuko responded, looking sheepish. "I didn't think anyone would find me here."

Sokka looked back and forth between Zuko and Katara, probably divining the fact they had both tried to hide in the same spot. From each other. When neither was actually looking for the other.

He was also probably trying to deny that this actually meant anything in the grand scheme of "oh my God they're married and actually perfect for one another" that Suki had tried to convince him of.

Both Katara and Zuko looked away, eyes landing on opposite sides of the three-person crevice.

"That reminds me," Sokka mused. "Zuko, you and I have to talk."

"Oh oh," Katara said, looking over Sokka so she could see Zuko. "Watch out. He's about to get overprotective and overbearing."

"It's his right, I suppose," Zuko said slowly, as though permitting Sokka to threaten him was a necessary evil.

"Zuko, I like you," Sokka said, very straightforward. "But if you lay one hand on my sister, I will cut your fingers off with my astro-sword."

Zuko stared evenly back at Sokka. "That might be difficult considering she IS my wife."

"Fingers," Sokka said meaningfully, looking at meaningfully at Zuko's hand. "Sword. And don't think Katara won't help me. She doesn't want you anywhere near her."

"I'm not getting involved in your little testosterone battle," Katara told them both, feigning interest in her book. The pages were a little damaged from the collision, so she straightened them out the best she could and didn't look up.

That didn't mean she wasn't listening very carefully.

"I'm going to need an heir," Zuko informed him reasonably. "Would you rather I knock up a concubine and dishonour your sister by naming that child my heir?"

"KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY SISTER!" Sokka screamed.

"I'll keep my hands off her as long as she wants me to," Zuko assured him with a smirk.

Sokka hovered between absolute fury and speechlessness for a moment before turning on his heel and leaving.

"Well," Zuko mused after a moment of awkward silence between the two of them. "As much as I was looking forward to that, it was only partially fun."

"Torturing Sokka usually is," Katara agreed.

Zuko suddenly got that thoughtful glint in his eye that meant he was thinking nefarious things, and Katara felt her stomach jump with nerves. "How would you like to toy with his mind a little?"

"What did you have in mind?" Katara asked with a mischievous smirk of her own.

x.x.x

"A baby!" Suki exclaimed, clapping her hands together in excitement. "I'll be an aunt. That is, if you ever get around to marrying me."

"Did you hear what I just said!" Sokka exclaimed, horrified. "I said that he promised not to touch Katara until she let him. My sister will never let him. It'll be all cold showers and marriage to his right hand for Lord Zuko."

Suki waved away Sokka's observation, a glint in her eyes. "Have you seen the way that man moves? Katara's willpower doesn't stand a chance."

"My sister's willpower is awesome in its strength. If I have learned one thing in my many years as an older brother, it is not to get between Katara and her willpower."

"Ah huh," Suki agreed, unconvinced.

"And what do you mean how he moves? He moves like everyone else."

She sighed. "In all my years as a Kyoshi warrior, I have never seen anyone move with that level of predatory grace coupled with absolute swiftness and silence. He's like a very deadly member of the spirit world."

"SooooooOOoooo?" Sokka asked.

"It's completely erotic. Mark my words, your sister will beg him to take her within a month."

Sokka gaped, eyebrow twitching. Then he turned and left his own bedroom, slamming the door in his wake. Suki's laughter followed him down the hall as he headed to the galley, a midnight snack on his mind to get it off more infuriating things.

* * *

A/N I know I responded to a few of your reviews with promises this would be completed last Sat. I'm sorry I was unable to follow through on that one.

I'm glad Suki sees Zuko as the rest of us do - totally walking sex. Now we just have to convert our Katara.

I really like receiving reviews, it makes me giddy. Please keep supplying me with my drug of choice.


	4. Chapter 4: Heart to Heart

**Bliss**

_Chapter 4: Heart to Heart_

* * *

After spending an afternoon trapped in the storage compartment with her thoughts, and then with her brother which was an even worse situation, Katara was almost glad to be free and roaming the airship, still trapped in her thoughts but with much more ample moving space. There was, of course, no way she was going to get away from the resentment, confusion, sorrow and general angst she felt at the idea of being married to Zuko. She'd be carrying that around with her for a while.

She could, however, alleviate a bit of her anxiety by confronting Toph.

No, Katara mentally reminded herself, not confronting. She just wanted to talk with Toph. A confrontation was exactly what she didn't want if they were going to mend any fences. She'd avoided everyone long enough and it seemed to be making her situation worse. If she took Sokka as an example, which was a dangerous thing to do since her brother couldn't be seen to be the norm in any circumstance, all her friends needed was to talk through their issues and maybe cry a bit.

So Katara did something after supper that she hadn't thought she would do in a million years, let alone that day – she searched out Toph.

She found the Earthbender slouched on one of the heavily cushioned chairs on the observatory deck set up in a heavily windowed room. Watching the clouds part in front of the ship was awe-inspiring and would be terrifying if she wasn't used to Appa. The best thing she could say about the view considering what she was used to was that it wasn't cold. Clouds had a tendency to stick to one's skin until they were chilled to the bone and it was a much more pervading chill than the frozen tundra of home.

Toph looked so tiny and helpless on the chair, something Katara would never dream of mentioning to her, and she felt like a horrible person for putting herself and her issues before her friends. Toph hated flying and not being able to feel the earth beneath her feet. It made her truly blind. It also made her helpless, which was not something Toph readily admitted to – in fact, Katara thought Toph was too stubborn to ever be helpless, but she did think that if Toph ever had high stress levels it would be because of an overly large, vibrating airship. While Toph could bend metal, and could see to a certain extent on ships, the vibrations of the ship's power always overwhelmed her.

"Hi," Katara said quietly as she took a seat beside her diminutive brawler friend. The greeting was so Toph would know she was there, and be able to pinpoint the location exactly.

Toph turned away from her, but it seemed to Katara that it was more of an action of regret than of anger. If Toph was still furious and being hateful, her movement would have been more jerky.

So Katara did what didn't come naturally to her and she remained silent until Toph relaxed her neck and looked towards her.

"I overreacted," Toph said quietly. "But as long as Aang is unhappy with you, I'm still angry."

That was about as much of an apology as Katara was going to get. "They were going to make him marry a child. It was either that or an old spinster twenty years older than he is. Zuko didn't deserve that. I just reacted. I didn't think."

"You never do," Toph agreed, but there was no venom behind the words. "It isn't me you need to talk to."

"He's not talking to me," Katara said quietly.

"It's hard for Aang to talk to you when you're avoiding him," Toph responded congenially, not even pretending to be antagonistic anymore.

Katara shook her head ruefully. "I'm not the one doing the avoiding."

"The first step is admitting you have a problem."

"And your problem is that you're cheeky."

"I readily admit to that."

Katara felt a good deal of the weight drop from her shoulders. This bantering was more familiar, and while it felt a little forced, it was far more natural than Toph's pure aggressive hate. Toph ruined it by opening her mouth again.

"I'm serious about this. I'm on Aang's side _Princess. _ He has my allegiance, so if you don't fix this with him, you haven't fixed it with me. Do you understand?"

Katara nodded and then realized Toph wouldn't be able to see it. "Yes," she croaked, fear and sorrow sticking in her throat at the idea of losing their friendship.

"So stop sitting here and go fix it!" Toph urged and Katara fled to find Aang, though she didn't feel ready to face her boyfriend yet.

She found Aang walking in the hallway. She stopped in front of him, chewing uncertainly on her lip. "Aang?" she said, her voice coming out as little more than a whisper.

His eyes didn't register her presence, and he side-stepped around her, leaving her in the hallway of the moving ship. There was no where he could go to avoid her except his own mind, and that was what he was the most skilled at.

x.x.x

Zuko found her on the upper observation deck. It had been converted into a landing pad for Appa, but on a regular trip it would contain smaller balloon ships used for emergency evacuation. A few of these were now kept to one side of Appa, but the majority of them were in the storage compartment in the hull. He didn't say anything, just took off his shoes and sat with her, his legs dangling over the side of the ship. The bridge was below them, a sheer drop into the water from where they sat. In the center of the observation deck was the balloon the ship had been retrofitted with.

"This is a beautiful ship," Katara said politely, not really meaning it.

Zuko snorted. "I've been thinking of painting what is left of the fleet white. Far less terror-inducing these days, don't you think?"

Katara shrugged.

"Or maybe a pretty pink," Zuko continued. "And then we'll fly off into the sunset together without anyone noticing."

"Sounds good," Katara said wanly.

"What is it?" Zuko asked, lips turning back into what he probably thought was an empathetic smile, but looked more like a grimace. "Katara?" he gave her shoulder a little shake. "What is it?"

Katara faced his supposedly comforting grimace and flinched away. "Don't smile like that, it's creepy."

All expression quickly dropped from his face.

"Only because it looks like you're trying too hard," she said quickly, realizing her mistake. He'd never try to be comforting again if he thought she'd turn away from it. Usually he was decent at this, but she thought that today neither of them would be very good company. "And I'm a little out of sorts right now. Aang won't look at me. I can't tell if he's angry or if he's somehow managed to erase all traces of me from his mind altogether. Do you think that's possible?"

"No. Don't worry," Zuko told her, her hand in his. "He won't stay angry with you forever."

"He's Aang," she said with a sigh. "And I was supposed to be his girlfriend."

"He just feels betrayed right now," Zuko promised, squeezing her fingers. "Soon reality will hit and he'll realize it isn't your fault. That you're the victim here and this whole thing is hurting you just as much as it is hurting him. Possibly more."

"That sounds nice in theory but Aang can hold a pretty good grudge."

"I don't know," Zuko disagreed. "I'm not sure anyone can hold a grudge better than you."

Katara snorted and pulled her hand out of his now that he was offering teasing instead of innocent comfort. "Yeah, and look how that turned out. We ended up _married."_

"But not out of any desire to be wed to one another," Zuko pointed out. "We both had our separate lives. You Aang and me..." he cut off. "Well, let's just say I expected to have a long engagement and marry when I was a little older."

"Mai," Katara supplied, looking at him keenly. "I'm sorry Zuko, I didn't even think. Here you are trying to make me feel better and we're in this together, aren't we? Will she be terribly upset?"

Zuko reflected for a moment.

_They sat side-by-side on the uncomfortable settee in her mother's sitting room, both with hands on their laps. "I don't think this is going to work out," Zuko informed her honestly._

"_I don't think this will work either," Mai said huskily, leaning forward for a kiss._

_Zuko leaned away from her, putting his hands on her shoulders with the pretence of looking into her eyes. Really, he just didn't want to kiss her again. Now that he was content with his life, their passionless passion for each other just felt cold. "No," he told her slowly, so she wouldn't misunderstand. "I want to break up."_

"_Oh, good," Mai said with a sigh as she stood up. "I met someone in jail. I don't not care about him."_

"Ah, no," Zuko said finally. "I don't think Mai will be particularly concerned if I return with a wife."

Katara looked at him suspiciously. "That sounds like one of Sokka's harebrained judgement calls he makes on the female mind."

Zuko sighed and crossed his arms across his chest, returning her glance with one of his own, and he was glaring slightly. "When have I ever given you the idea I'm as touched in the head as your brother is?"

Katara thought about it for a second, reflecting on all the crazy things Zuko had done over the years. She remembered the time he had tried to steal Aang away by running deeper into the frozen land of the north, and the various betrayals he learned to regret.

Zuko gave her a hard look and something akin to a pout. "You shouldn't have to think about it."

"Well, you're not always as smart as you think you are," she rationalized. "You're hotheaded and sometimes you don't think things through entirely before making a move."

"Hotheaded?" he bellowed. "Me? I'm not... I haven't been tempermental or volatile for years."

The fact he was yelling at her, clearly touchy about this subject, didn't seem to help his case. It didn't help that since they were sitting on top of the airship, their voices were raised to shouting decimals just to be heard, so for him to noticeably become louder was an accomplishment. Of course Katara wasn't being fair, she realized all at once. Every time she wanted to pick a fight with him, she brought up how Prince Zuko had been when they first met. It was the best way to push his buttons, and she met his defiant stare with contrition. "Sorry," she grimaced. "It's unfair for me to keep bringing that up."

"At least you realize it," he told her, looking away from her. His eyes looked down, beyond the ship to the water far far below them. They were so high up that Katara could barely feel the vast ocean below her, the sense of power from the water just a flicker in the back of her head, almost beyond her reach. From here she couldn't control any of it, but there were far closer sources of water.

"There's going to be a storm tonight," she told him and knew it was true as soon as the words emerged from her mouth. She could taste it in the air and could feel the storm clouds on the horizon like she could sense the ocean. They were in the distance, not visible to her eye yet, but they were vast and heavy with rain. "It will be a bad one."

Zuko looked out over the horizon and didn't ask if she was sure. "I'll alert the captain. He'll probably know more about it than I do."

"How long has he been flying?" Katara asked. "This ship can't be too old, it's a new technology right? So he doesn't have the experience in the air that the captains of your navy do."

"True," Zuko responded thoughtfully.

"He should consult with Aang as to the best way to avoid the storm. You know Aang is the only person who really understands flight. I think we should try to get above the storm, but Aang might know better."

Zuko was nodding. "I'll make sure it happens." He suddenly looked at her, his golden eyes intense and direct. "Katara, we need to have a serious talk about our marriage."

"Now?" she asked, inwardly grimacing at the whiny tone in her voice. "I was hoping to put it off for a few more years."

"If we put it off we could end up married permanently. Now is a better time than most, there's no one up here and very little chance we can be overheard. Once we reach land that will become virtually impossible."

"I thought we were already married," Katara said slowly, trying to remember what he had said right after the tribunal. She had been so upset at the time that the only thing that really perforated her brain was the following:

1. Zuko and Katara were married. For real.

2. It was her fault, because while he hadn't been entirely hotheaded for years, she still was; and,

3. Zuko promised to fix it, but never elaborated. He probably hadn't been able to get a word in edge-wise over the sound of her wailing.

"Yes and no. The tribunal has promised us some leeway before it is officially announced. They want a big Fire Nation ceremony. We've still got some time," Zuko promised. "I don't know how yet, but I'll find leverage to get us out of this marriage."

Katara nodded mutely, still staring at her hands. She couldn't look away from them, and her fingers were clasped together so tightly that her fingers were turning white. "I understand that," she said sullenly. "But I don't understand how we can put it off. The members of the tribunal are expecting a wedding, so how can we possibly not have one? That was kind of a condition."

"I've always made it very clear that there was one thing I had to do before I was willing to marry," Zuko reminded her, his voice disembodied from her focus of concentration. Katara dared not look up from her fingers or the horizon of blue ocean beyond them. If she looked at him, she thought she might dishonour them both and cry, and she had done enough of that for the both of them.

She was not having Zuko think her weak. Not again.

"Your mother?" she asked, knowing it was more than a guess. He had mentioned something similar to her once, about how he couldn't consider the war over until he found his mother, or at least conclusively knew what happened to her. She didn't think Zuko expected Lady Ursa to be alive. Chances were he was right, but Katara was enough of an optimist to hope he was wrong.

Zuko nodded, and Katara noticed the harsh movement in her periphery. He was just a dark shape, his hair hooding his eyes so all that was really visible was his mouth and jaw. He had moved closer to her at some point, his arm braced behind her back, his fingers tight on the metal edge by her hip. It was close enough to be an embrace without touching her, and his nearness comforted her though she still couldn't look at him.

"I'll find my mother," he promised, "and then I'll reinstate her into the position she deserves."

"Fire Queen," Katara said, turning to face him, eyes shining with idea that the responsibility wouldn't fall on her shoulders. It was a relief. Though she hadn't voiced the concern yet, she didn't think she was suited to helping him run an entire country, especially the Fire Nation. They had been warmongers for far too long to change overnight. Katara knew they weren't all bad people, and many of the citizens were just as disillusioned by years of war and hardship as everyone else and welcomed peace. She couldn't help but wonder how many of them would be unbiased enough after a century of hate to welcome her as their queen.

The thought made her queasy.

If his mother could take over that role, it would alleviate a lot of worry in her mind. She knew the people loved Lady Ursa, and the time directly after Ozai married her was the closest to peace the world had seen before now. Even as far as the Southern Water Tribe it was known that the Fire Lady was well-loved.

Zuko shook his head, giving her a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "No. Dowager Fire Lady. The title of Fire Lady belongs solely to my wife."

Katara turned away from him, the panic reinserting itself in her mind.

Zuko's hand fell heavily on her shoulder. "Hey," he said, pulling her towards him for a brief sideways hug. "No one said it had to be you."

Katara pulled away, but did turn to look at him, balancing on the ledge so one of her legs dangled off the side and the other was curled between them. She felt much better once she was able to see him, more like herself and less disconnected from the situation. She wondered why she thought turning away from him was a good idea. "Ah, the Tribunal of Four Nations, composed of about every king, chief, or very important person in the world pretty much said so."

Zuko shrugged and smirked. "What do they know?" he asked rhetorically.

She grinned. It seemed like an impossibility considering how tense she was, but there was something about the way he casually dismissed every leader in the world with his usual arrogance that made her smile. She couldn't help it.

He continued. "They won't grant us forever, but they can probably be persuaded to wait a few months. I'll tell them I want to find my mother, when really I'm just buying us time to find a loophole. Not," he amended, "that I won't be trying to find my mother at the same time."

"How do you plan to find her?" she asked, focusing in on the only safe topic they could talk about without the panic welling in her chest at the idea that in less than a day they would reach the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation where she was now queen, according to The Law of Four Nations. There was no way she could possibly get away from acknowledging her responsibilities, or from the rumour of the Fire Lord's union from spreading throughout the capital.

People would be kowtowing to her left and right. More than they were now.

Either that or they would be hating her with the strength of a thousand suns and throwing tomatoes or rocks at her.

The idea of being respected pleased her in a way it shouldn't, so she didn't think about it too carefully.

"I can't see any way to expedite the process I already put into motion. In three months I will be leaving the capital and touring my kingdom. I was going to use that time to search for my mother using clandestine means, bribery, and possibly bullying-"

"As yourself or as the mysterious Blue Spirit with the ninjutsu training?" Katara interrupted him to ask.

He gave her a levelled look that spoke volumes, saying 'what do you think' without answering her question.

"Before," he started, pausing as he considered what to say next. "Before all this happened I was going to ask you to accompany me. My people in the outlying villages will need a capable healer, and of course I could use your skills myself."

"I doubt you're talking about my healing skills," Katara retorted, teasing him.

"We work well together," he responded, leaning towards her slightly. His eyes danced with amusement like flickering flames. Their height and precarious perch was forgotten by both of them as they chatted and plotted. "Your skills compliment mine. You can keep up with me, you know when to be silent, and you can be very intimidating. I need to find my mother and I can't have mistakes."

This was possibly the best compliment she had ever received, even if it was expressed in Zuko's semi-awkward stilted phrasing he sometimes had when he was trying to say something difficult and had thought too much on how to express it. What it came down to was that he trusted her to help him get the job done, and she blinked at the realization. This wasn't the first time he had picked her over everyone else in the gang. The fact that they worked well together was something she had always taken for granted, but if she had to choose someone to help her with a mission of consequence, she wasn't sure Zuko would be her first choice.

Why not? He was less likely to screw up than Sokka, he didn't see things as black and white as Aang did, and he had Firebending skills Suki could never possess.

Zuko interrupted her serious self-reflection by continuing his train of thought. "Of course now that you are my wife, or as far as the Fire Nation is concerned, my intended, you're expected to escort me as a mark of honour."

"I would have said yes, you know," she told him with a glower. "But now I'm considering leaving you to travel on your own."

"You won't," he said with surety.

She really wouldn't. It had nothing to do with honour or courtesy or even the fact that he trusted her to help him find his mother, which was possibly the single most important task of his life. She owed him for helping her face her mother issues, but even that wasn't enough to get her to go with him.

The Main draw was how much fun it could be, and she grinned at him with the realization. After years of independence and adventure, peace was starting to become boring and confining to her freedom. "It'll be fun," she agreed.

Zuko grinned, and they were both smiling at each other, sitting together on top of the airship as though they were the only two people in the world, and in that moment everything melted away and they were.

x.x.x.x.x

Katara awoke in the middle of the night with a start and she immediately knew something was wrong. There was something about the rapid beat of her heart and the adrenaline already coursing through her body that reminded her of how she would become alert when she was in danger during the war. Something was definitely wrong, and she didn't know what it was yet.

The fog through her window was thick and she couldn't see anything outside. They were in the clouds, which was wrong. She could feel the storm surrounding them though it wasn't visible at this level. By this time they should be above the cloud coverage. Quickly, Katara slipped on her dress and ran towards the door, the floor sloping beneath her feet as she moved. The entire airship listed to the side.

The unbalance wasn't very noticeable, and she wasn't sure she would have known the ship had moved if she was still in bed. Her heart skipped to her throat as she threw the door to her bedroom open. The unease she was experiencing became more pronounced as she realized there was no one in the hallway. The night before when she had slipped from her room to relieve her bladder there had been guards in the hallway and night staff were cleaning the floors. Tonight the hallways were empty.

The cold chill settled somewhere around her heart as she rushed across the hallway and knocked on Sokka's door. Suki answered it, already half dressed. "Something's wrong!" Katara exclaimed.

"You feel it too?" Suki asked.

"Wake everyone up, I'm going to go check the bridge," Katara told her, already running down the hallway. The metal of the floor was cool on her feet, but she could feel every motion of the airship as it lurched forward. Something was wrong with the ship, and if she was reading the sloping direction correctly, it was going down.

Once she neared the bridge, she could hear the commanding yells of the captain first, and then the sound of people rushing to fulfill orders.

"Evacuate the ship," the captain yelled just as Katara reached the entrance to the bridge and she was able to see the chaos firsthand. All the Firebenders were blowing fire up into the large central balloon, but it seemed to be collapsing inwardly. Men were balanced on ladders, attempting to simultaneously mend the rip.

They were definitely about to crash, but at a gentler decline than most rapid descents from the air. That just meant they had minutes rather than seconds, but either way it ended with the ship crashing into the water.

No one knew better than Katara what exactly that could mean.

"You can't be here," one of the Fire Nation soldiers told her, grabbing her elbow and dragging her back down the hallway. "We're evacuating the ship now. The emergency lifeboats are this way."

"Save the boats for people who need them," Katara told the man, wrenching her arm out of his grasp. "I have to go get my friends, and we have Appa."

"My orders are to escort you-"

"I'm ordering you to let me go so I can prepare my own evacuation. You go make sure Zuko and his entourage are safe." There were definitely bonuses to being a person in power. She was now able to get what she wanted easier and with less of a fight.

The soldier looked hesitant for a second.

"We'll be fine," Katara urged him. "There's no need to worry about an Airbender and a Waterbender in a storm."

He still looked uncertain, but turned towards the upper accommodations, headed for Zuko.

Katara felt accomplished as she hurried towards her friends. "We're going down," she told Aang and Suki as she ran down the hallway towards them. Her voice was so loud that Sokka stuck his head out the door, still half-dressed.

"WHAT?" he shrieked, shoving his arms into his shirt. "Where's my sword?"

"A weapon isn't going to help you fight your way out of this one," Suki told him, completely deadpan.

"Get Toph," Katara told her, ignoring her brother. She then turned to Aang. This was the first time he faced her without flinching away in days, and that was because his face was concerned, with that look of subtle determination he got on his brow when he wanted something. "Go prepare Appa for flight."

Aang was already moving before she finished the sentence. Katara raced into her room and grabbed her mother's necklace, casting an eye around for anything else of importance. Her clothing didn't matter, they were replaceable, and the scrolls denoting her marriage to Zuko could definitely sink the bottom of the ocean.

"Do you have your boomerang?" Katara asked Sokka, pausing in the doorway to her brother's room. He had his sword on his hip, boomerang on his back, and his zeboar skin purse looped around his neck. He had on one matching boot and was crawling under the bed, probably searching for the other.

Katara could sense the ocean getting nearer, and knew there wasn't time for him to search the room for a missing shoe.

"Sokka, it isn't important!"

"These are one-of-a-kind, hand stitched by master artisans in the-" he cut off with a strangled gurgle as she grabbed the bag and pulled him out from under the bed with it. His fingers clutched the missing shoe and he started hopping on one foot trying to get it on. Katara yanked it from his grasp and pulled the water from the cup next to his bed, freezing her fingers around his arm as she shoved the boot back into his free hand, her face scowling in determination.

"Ah! Cold, Katara. Cold!" he yelped as she dragged him from the room.

"You are the stupidest, most idiotic," Katara grumbled, breaking off this train of thought before she really laid into him. "In less than five minutes this entire ship is going to be at the bottom of the ocean. We. Are. Crashing. Now."

That seemed to get through his thick skull because he stopped forcing her to drag his skinny butt down the hallway and started to run, pulling her along with him. If there was one thing Sokka was really good at it was running away from danger.

No, not an entirely fair assessment, but not completely inaccurate either.

By the time they climbed the two flights of stairs up to the observation deck, Katara could feel the extreme power of the roiling ocean waves greet her. It was so close she could pull the water to her and harvest all that force for herself. With a single glance she could see that all the lifeboats were gone. When the Captain said to evacuate, his people did so quickly. Her hand came free of Sokka's arm as they both scrambled onto Appa's back.

"Wait!" Aang exclaimed as they all settled into the saddle on Appa's back. "Are you sure there is no one left on the ship?"

"They were all getting into lifeboats when I came downstairs to find you."

"Lifeboats?" Sokka asked. "But we're in the air."

"Not for long!" Toph exclaimed, giving Aang a meaningful glance as Appa shifted uneasily on the falling airship.

"They're boats attached to airballoons. You've seen them before," Suki explained to Sokka.

"AANG!" Katara yelled impatiently. "There isn't much time. Get Appa in the air and we'll circle the ship for any stragglers."

Aang shot her a disheartened look, knowing just as well as she did that if there was anyone else left on the ship, the chances of them standing close enough to any open spaces where Appa could reach them were slim. Irrationally, Katara felt the need to apologize for trying to make sure they all survived. Aang was the type to go down with the ship if he thought he could save just one extra life. Katara liked to think she was more pragmatic than that.

"I WANT TO LIVE!" Sokka was screaming melodramatically, almost drowning out the sound of someone left on the airship yelling for them to wait.

"There's someone there," Toph intoned, gesturing towards Appa's side.

Suki, the only one of them still with any amount of reason, reached over and hauled the man onto Appa's back.

Aang looked satisfied he had been proven right. Katara gritted her teeth, trying not to show how frustrated she was that they were still on this ship. She almost missed taking a good look at the man.

He was the one who stopped her in the hallway.

"Where's Zuko?" she asked, the unease and worry in her stomach suddenly coming to a head. He didn't respond and Katara jumped across the distance between them, hauling the man towards her by the front of his black shirt. "Where's Zuko?" she emphasized, her voice steady but menacing.

The man looked stricken for a second in the face of her fury. "He was on the first lifeboat."

Katara sat back as her friend exchanged glances. She watched the man carefully, noting the sweat on his brow and the beat of his heart. It all felt wrong, beyond terror of the situation. Something was definitely not right.

"Zuko wouldn't leave without us," she proclaimed, suddenly gaining clarity of thought. Before anyone could agree or disagree with her, she jumped off Appa, landing on the metal sheeting of Appa's landing pad. Katara rolled to her feet, turning to face her friends. They were all staring at her with various expressions of shock. "Go!" she urged. "GO! I'll be fine."

Without waiting for them to comply, she took off at a run down the stairs, the angle far steeper than it should be because of the descent of the ship. Her mind kept a constant link with the ocean, and they were so close she could breathe in the scent of salt and call the water to her with little effort. The hallway leading to Zuko's room was pitch black, none of the wall torches still lit. Katara lurched forward, finding the doorway to his chamber through touch. Luckily it was the only room with elaborate scrolled carvings and heavy metal doorknobs.

The left door crashed open at her slightest touch, falling forward with gravity. Katara stumbled into the room, the torches here still lit, smouldering around the curtains hanging from the ceiling next to them. Katara didn't pay the slightest worry to the fact this whole room was about to ignite into flames. It wouldn't matter considering it would be flooded with water in less than a minute.

Zuko was still asleep on his bed. For a flash of a second Katara felt validated that she had been right and the next moment she realized he never would sleep through something like this.

"Zuko!" Katara shouted as she vaulted on top of him, the slope towards his bed too steep to do much more than jump. He didn't move when her body crashed into his, and the moment her hand touched his chest she knew his heart wasn't beating, but he wasn't cold yet.

There was still hope.

Tears welled up in her eyes as her hands pressed on his chest over his heart and she pulled on his blood in time with her own pulse, listening as it pounded in her ears. With her mind she reached out and touched the ocean.

Katara screamed as the ship collided with the great body of water. Her arms tightened around Zuko's body as they were propelled through the air with the force of the crash. She smashed into the wall first, tumbling and falling.

The ship crashing into the ocean wasn't a smooth impact or the gradual sinking of a ship meant for water. The airship shattered on impact, shards of metal flying apart with the brutality of water. Ice cold ocean water surged through every crevice, engulfing everything in the room.

* * *

Yes, that is a cliffy. I am evil.

This chapter almost kicked my ass. It still is, actually. I think I need a Beta on this fic, though I've never needed one before. Anyone want to offer their services?

My thanks to **_TrumpetGeek_** for taking the time out of her busy schedule to do a quick and dirty edit of this chapter when I felt myself pulling out my hair.

On a less serious note, Zuko's going to be so pissed someone tried to assassinate him (yes spoiler included, I know none of you really want to wait for the next chapter to find out. Or actually believe I would kill him off).


	5. Chapter 5: Crash and Burn

**Bliss**

_Chapter 5: Crash and Burn_

* * *

Because of the storm none of the gang were able to tell exactly how close the ocean was while they were still on the ship. Rain made for poor visibility and the sheet metal was too slippery for any of them to imagine trying to get close to the edge. Of course, there wasn't time for that and none of them even thought to check how far away they were from crashing. They had Katara for that, and she seemed to think it was imminent.

Once Katara jumped off the ship both Aang and Sokka refused to leave with her still there, despite her wishes for them to take off immediately. Sokka, in his infinite wisdom, tried to follow her, but Suki held him back with a well-aimed kick to the knee. Aang just refused to move Appa, peering intensely through the rain for Katara to realize she was on a fool's mission and return. He knew how close the water was and ignored it as long as possible until the choice was to either leave or crash along with the airship.

Appa became edgy, shifting uneasily and Aang shot a concerned look through the heavy rain as he finally brought Appa off the ship with a decisive "yip yip."

The gang crowded around the edge of Appa's saddle, with the exception of Toph who simply listened and shot Aang an exasperated look. Appa hauled up and away from the ship. Even Suki gasped when she saw how close they had been to the ocean. They could see individual waves on the ocean and for a team who spent what seemed like more than a year on Appa's back flying around the world, they knew how close that was.

Appa struggled to gain altitude as the airship drifted downwards below them, the way it seemed to float in stasis belying the quick descent into the water. It was like a cannon ball that looked to be dribbling slowly across a field but could still take off a man's foot or destroy a building.

"The angle," Sokka muttered, leaning forward in his perch to get a better view. His friends could see the numbers multiplying in his head as he calculated the crash, his hands waving to correspond what was going on in his head. It looked pretty silly with the boot still in his hand. "Speed. This is going to be bad."

They all looked over the side of the saddle grimly.

The ship still looked like it was drifting into the water, but Sokka was hugging his boot and making sounds of distress as it rapidly came closer and closer to impact. Everyone was tense.

At the last second, the ocean spread from beneath the ship, water coming up on all sides and cradling the crashing airship as it hit and immediately pulling it under the waves with nary a splash.

"Katara!" Sokka shouted. The water settled back into choppy waves caused by the storm, rain hitting on the debris littering the surface.

Toph listened to them with a forlorn expression as Suki narrated what was happening.

Aang guided Apps down to the wreckage, his baby blue eyes scanning the water for Katara. As the other Waterbender in the group, he should be the one who found her, but he couldn't. Water, water everywhere and the human body was made up of sixty percent water. The other forty percent was difficult to locate in normal conditions, and Aang didn't have proficiency at a micro level like Katara did.

There was so much wreckage and Katara was so small. None of them could see very far or well in the rain, but each one of them had their eyes peeled and their ears on alert for any sound that wasn't the roar of water.

"She wouldn't just float there," Sokka said angrily. "She'd make herself known." Then he started to cry.

Appa bellowed and lightening struck.

x.x.x.x.x

Katara screamed in rage as she and Zuko were propelled out of the bed on impact, her mind calling the water to surround them to cushion the blow. Her hands held Zuko to her as they bashed against the wall, the ocean quickly heeding her call in all directions. Katara's back smacked harshly against the wall and she felt her grip ease. For a moment she panicked at the thought of losing him in the tempestuous power of her element, but she controlled all. For so long Katara had believed that the water was stronger than she was, and that it would always come out on top, but not this time. This time it couldn't be the victor in this battle. Instead, she would be.

She reached out and created a ball of water around an air pocket, pulling it towards her. The water swirled in a whirlpool around the air, as she kicked off from the wall, cutting through the spinning water like a knife through butter. The water practically deposited her and Zuko safely in the pocket of air, and she quickly froze the surrounding area into an impenetrable fortress, taking inspiration from the iceberg Aang had rested in for a century.

Once they were in safety Katara let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't sure it would work. Rarely did she have to rely on her own powers to manipulate another element, but now she knew it could be done in a roundabout way. Aang could have expanded on the air in her little bubble, but she was only able to work with what was already there, trapped beneath the water like they were.

His heart had started to beat right before impact, but he wasn't breathing now. His pulse was weak, but still there. Katara put her hand on his chest again, closing her eyes as she probed his body with her senses. There, her mind screamed as she realized he had swallowed water in an attempt to breathe while they were submerged. With a flick of her wrist she brought it to the surface and it flowed out of his mouth.

Katara had seen people choke up water before, and they had always coughed and sputtered as it came out of their throat and they were able to breathe again. Zuko didn't. She frowned, her hand still on his chest. It definitely wasn't rising beneath her palm. Quickly, without giving it any thought, she leaned over and pressed her lips against his, blowing air into his mouth.

It didn't work, the breath just leaked out of the side of his lips and his nose, so after assessing the situation for a second she tilted his head back and tried again. The air went in cleanly and he expelled it on his own. He inhaled again on his own too, but didn't wake up.

Katara listened to his pulse and the soft sound of him breathing as she huddled next to him in their cocoon of ice. She sighed and her throat felt heavy from not crying or screaming through the entire ordeal. He was cold where he always ran hot.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, probing him again with her senses again. She cast her mind back to his room for clues, and she could remember a pillow being out of place on his bed, tossed at a strange angle beside his head. So he could have been smothered, she supposed, but she couldn't picture Zuko as they type to simply lie back and take it. He must have been incapacitated at some point, probably after supper. He hadn't consumed anything different from what the rest of them had eaten or drank. In fact, his supper had been very close to what she herself had devoured, with the exception of a small side of vegetables. Considering Aang had eaten an entire heaping plateful of those, she was sure that Zuko hadn't been poisoned at supper.

Katara closed her eyes and probed his blood. It took every bit of her concentration to detect the small impurities running through his veins. She knew his blood intimately from the last time he had died in her arms. His heart wasn't supposed to beat this sluggishly, and she knew if she didn't do something quickly that the life she had given back to him in the last few minutes would be snuffed out again.

Katara's limited experience with blood bending was mostly limited to stopping the flow of blood through someone's body, but this time she sped it up so his heart was racing to keep up with the flow. With one hand held straight in front of her, tense and firm with the fingers splayed only slightly. She began to grasp the air behind it with her other hand, making a drawing motion with her fingers as though she were pulling hair out of a drain pipe. Her fingers acted as a visualization of a strainer, keeping the silt in the water back, only this time it was poison in blood, and at a far more microscopic level.

By the time his blood started to flow clear through his body Katara was sweating and breathing heavily from the effort. Her hands were shaking, but her mental resolve was still strong. One thing she had learned in the last year was that the bending itself wasn't always about how fatigued or shaky your body was, but more about how it was mentally interpreted. For the longest time if her body showed signs of weakness, so did her bending, but that didn't always necessarily have to be the case.

It was a lesson she had learned on her own. No Master could have taught it too her.

The poison was all located in his forearm and Katara's eyesight wavered as she broke a piece of the ice surrounding them and cut open Zuko's wrist. The tainted blood flowed through the wound, cleansing his body rapidly. The knife melted in her hand, coating the fingers into a healing touch. Once Zuko was free of the poison, her hand clasped around his wrist and she collapsed on top of him, utterly spent.

x.x.x.x

Zuko awoke first and immediately recognised three things without opening his eyes. The first was that he had fallen asleep at some point, though he usually didn't require much of it, and his head pounded and throbbed worse than the morning after the last time he drank fire ale. The second thing Zuko noticed was that he had been moved somewhere. He couldn't detect the vibrations of the airship on his body, and he felt cold rather than the usual hot temperatures that usually pervaded Fire Nation technology. Third, it felt like he was sleeping across someone's legs, as there was the distinct shape of a knee pressed into his lower back.

_What had he done?_

His eyes flew open and he found himself trapped under a small blue dome that felt like ice next to his palm. Upon closer inspection he realized it was ice. His first reaction was to call his Fire forward and melt himself out of there but caution followed closely on the heels of confusion. Slowly, his head feeling like it was stuffed with cotton so that every movement was a battle of will, he turned to see who he was collapsed against.

Katara.

He wasn't surprised, and he realized that he had recognised the ice as her handiwork the second he woke up. Zuko knew something had to be very wrong for her to have sequestered both of them into a cocoon of ice. He looked closer at her, his eyes having trouble detecting anything in this dark. There was a slight glow coming from the ice itself, almost blue in color, but it wasn't allowing him to see much of the details. He wanted to see if she really looked as exhausted as it seemed in the blue glow, if the shadows cast beneath her eyes and in the hollows of her cheeks were because there was something wrong with her or if it was just the lighting. He yearned to raise his palm to her face and let a small fire flare, just for a second.

He would never light fire in here. Who knew how thick the ice was and what was immediately outside that could get in if it melted. There was also a chance that they were running out of oxygen. Why else would she have passed out like this when she had been healthy enough to get them there in the first place?

That's when he noticed the blood, just a dark splotch against the pristine ice and the light color of her night robe.

"Katara?" Zuko question, his voice nothing more than a croak. His mouth and throat felt so dry. "Katara?" he said again, louder this time. His hand pressed against her shoulder. She felt so cold, but then she always felt cool to the touch, hadn't she?

No, no, that was wrong. She always burned more hotly than he expected, he remembered.

Katara's breath sighed out of her body when his fingers made contact and her head lolled to the other shoulder.

He should have been relieved that she was alive, but instead the spark of unease flared in his mind. A lock of her thick hair fell lankly against her forehead and her skin was coated in a thin veil of sweat. She wasn't just asleep. He'd never seen her like this, without the fire that made her so unique. Somehow, he managed to push past the fuzzy feeling in his head and navigate around the tight confines they were in to face her, his knees balanced on either side of her hips.

"Zuko," she sighed in her sleep as his hand pressed against her stomach, trying to find the wound. That was where most of the blood had pooled, so dark it was almost black against her clothes, but she seemed to be fine. Had she been able to build them this cage and also heal herself? At the sound of his name on her lips, his stomach fluttered with satisfaction, but he pushed the inappropriate response away for a better time. A moment later she said "poison" and he realized she hadn't been saying his name in her sleep after all; she had been trying to tell him something.

x.x.x.x

Katara was drifting, her was mind away from her body, following the ebb of waves and tides through the ocean. She played with her element like a child cupping water on the palm of her hand and then skimming her palm along the meniscus, feeling the surface tension smooth and silky beneath her touch. If only she could wear water, she thought. It would feel cooler on her skin than even the best silks, smoother than the most expensive furs. She would feel like a queen.

Her mind giggled at the idea. She could probably bend water into a very fashionable dress, but there wasn't much she could do about the nudity issue.

What would Zuko think?

The moment her mind thought of Zuko she realized he was speaking to her at a distance, back in her body, but she couldn't entirely make out the words. They were muffled through the roar of water in her ears. She didn't care what he had to say; she would gladly have ignored him if it wasn't for the urgency in his tone. Was he ok? she wondered. Had she failed in healing him? Was he bleeding to death in her arms while she slept a healing sleep herself? Immediately Katara shot awake, her eyes springing open and her mind popping back into her skull and she surfaced.

She was curled against Zuko's chest, his heart beat slow and steady in her ear. She felt satisfaction upon hearing it, and couldn't help but smile slightly at the sound.

Mine, her mind thought, asserting ownership over the sound as her hand drifted over his heart. She felt relaxed, almost euphoric. Giddy. His eyes were closed, but he wasn't sleeping. He seemed fine, and she knew he had rearranged them so that he was protecting her in her sleep rather than the other way around. That wasn't an easy task in this small of a space. Her legs were bowed between his, hers bonelessly limp and his stretched taut on either side. He was still wearing one of his stupid slippers, but the other foot was bare, the slipper probably long lost to the water. It made her smile expand.

"I didn't understand at first," he told her, his voice rumbling in his chest. "You mentioned poison in your sleep. I should have known you meant me. The blood is mine, isn't it?"

She nodded, ear brushing against his body. "How are you feeling?" she asked him. She felt so warm, so peaceful. She wanted to just drift back to sleep, but for now his answer was more important.

"Alive," he said mirthlessly. "Katara, we're running out of air."

Katara's eyes snapped opened again and she inhaled sharply, recognising the warmth, lethargy and sense of euphoria for what it was. She pushed away from Zuko, pressing herself against the cool wall of ice. Contact with her element helped center her, keeping the fuzzies at bay. They had drifted at least two hours worth of distance towards the bottom of the ocean and she could see every inch of that space. Ice wasn't supposed to sink, so she knew that subconsciously she must have been forcing it downwards and she didn't know why she was doing that. Shouldn't she want the two of them to be rescued quickly on the surface?

She had saved his life and then exhausted herself too much to pay attention to what her Waterbending was doing. She had been neglectful, she realized, by thinking they were secure enough here for her to let go. She should have fought against the blackout until she knew they were safe, but at the same time a part of her couldn't see how they could be any safer than in this protective bubble. If it wasn't for the air situation, she would have been keeping him perfectly out of harm's way. With her mind, she gave the water beneath them an enormous thrust and at the same time let go of the heavy, sinking sensation that was dragging them under.

"I'm sorry," she told him. "I made a mistake bringing you here." She was overcome by guilt and didn't know how to express it.

He looked away from her and Katara yanked her foot away from where it rested against her knee, interpreting his move as blame. There wasn't much space in their cocoon for two separate people, but somehow they both managed to not touch.

"I guess so," he told her frigidly.

They were silent, the air turning cold between them in a way that had nothing to do with the ice or the lack of air. Why was he being so sensitive? Why was he being judgmental about her almost suffocated both of them? It wasn't entirely her fault she had collapsed from exhaustion. That one was his fault too. If he hadn't been so careless, he wouldn't have been poisoned in the first place.

He didn't have any right to judge a simple slip-up on her part. Her anger fuelled her worn-out bending abilities, and before long they were flying out of the water.

x.x.x.x

"She wouldn't have drowned," Sokka said as the gang scoured the wreckage for Katara, and then for Katara's body after the timeframe for someone surviving underwater expired. "She's a Master Waterbender," he insisted. "She didn't drown."

They remained silent, not contradicting him. Suki was grim, not believing that anyone could survive that crash, even if they were in command of the ocean. All around them were piece of debris torn from what had been a solidly constructed airship. The water had shredded the metal to shards. Suki didn't think even Katara could survive that, but she didn't tell Sokka that.

Aang didn't contradict Sokka because he believed in Katara too, though he didn't understand why she hadn't surfaced yet to make sure they knew she was alive. He tried to find her in the water, using his own Waterbending abilities, but there was simply too much ocean and the storm in addition to all the pieces of wreckage made finding her the equivalent of locating a needle in a haystack. Or, in mariner terms, finding a single drop of water in the ocean.

Toph wasn't sure either way. She thought it was a little strange that the ship went down at all, let alone with Zuko still on it. She had felt it beneath her feet and she knew it was solidly built. She wasn't worried about Katara. Katara was resilient. Anyone who could make a knife out of her own sweat wouldn't have any problems in a high speed impact. Probably. There were much more pressing things for Toph to worry about.

An hour after the airship crashed and Katara disappeared they found the first lifeboat. It had collapsed in the water, the balloon dead and waterlogged and the boat reduced to little more than a few planks of wood. Survivors were clinging to anything that floated, including the life jackets, seat cushions, and wood from the boat. The strange thing was that despite the ongoing storm surrounding them and the choppy and hazardous waves of the water, this one radius of ocean was calm.

"Katara," Sokka said with surety as the first survivor they pulled on Appa's back told them a tale of the lifeboat coasting from the sky, the balloon unable to hold many people. It was like they were drifting on raindrops, he said. That the water had turned calm when they approached and it had saved them all.

"It had to be one of them sea witches," the man insisted with a shiver.

"Katara," Sokka nodded.

"More like someone hit the sauce too much before we crashed," Toph pointed out, miming the action of drinking alcohol.

Appa was able to do little more than paddle on top of the ocean with all the added crew from the ship on his back. Everyone remained silent for the most part, each reflecting on what had happened in the last hour and the people who were not present with them.

"Captain?" Toph's voice rang out clear as her eyes focused on the former captain of The Aurora, the flagship of Zuko's small airfleet which was now twenty thousand leagues under the sea. It unnerved people when she did that, she knew, as they always thought she could see things she couldn't. Not visibly, but through an added sense like clairvoyance or mindreading. Really, she could just smell the tobacco the Captain used and had recently heard the sound of him sucking on his teeth. She didn't know anyone else who did that to cover silence. "Where is the Fire Lord?"

The silence before was nothing compared with what happened now as everyone stopped moving, stopped breathing, and waited for the response. "On the first airship," the captain answered. "I couldn't have abandoned ship unless he was safe."

Toph accepted this as an answer. For now. Obviously, this rationale didn't hold true for everyone on his ship, not even Katara. Toph hadn't been there when Zuko had told his people Katara was their Fire Lady, none of the gang had been, but even during her most furious Toph had noticed they treated Katara with various degrees of respect.

Sokka picked up on it too. "What about my sister?" he demanded. "Aren't all you people supposed to treat her like your queen or whatever? What about her?" He jumped over three people, causing them to sprawl out of their assigned seating to get away from him. One almost toppled off the side of Appa's saddle and into the water. Sokka had the Captain by the neck of his uniform, shaking him for all he was worth. "And what about us? You were off the ship before we even reached the evacuation site. If my sister is dead, I'm blaming you."

"Sokka, don't be irrational," Suki said, but without conviction.

The Captain frowned as he looked around the small space on Appa's back. "Where is Lady Katara?"

The gang remained silent.

"Rogers?" the Captain asked, directing the question at the man who had told them Zuko was on the first lifeboat before they had evacuated. The one who had given Katara the idea that Zuko was, in fact, still aboard the crashing ship.

"She went down with the ship, sir," Rogers answered grudgingly.

The captain went white. It was the first time any of them had seen a seasoned sailor, or aviator as the case may be, look seasick.

"She didn't just go down with the ship," Sokka spat in Roger's direction. "Something this bozo said convinced her that your Lord was still on it and she went back for him."

Half an hour later they met the second lifeboat, this one had landed on the water with ease and had converted their balloon into sails. They cheerfully wove as Appa drew broadside.

"Ahoy. Glad to see you made it, Captain, even if you did lose both your boats," the first mate called out.

"Have you seen the first lifeboat?" Aang asked. "We're looking for Zuko."

The first mate pointed in the distance where an island was starting to become visible through a curtain of fog. The sun was starting to rise and with it the storm clouds were rolling away, leaving a humid but clear dawn. "We're converging on the nearest landform as per procedure."

"Land?" Sokka asked. "But Katara will stay with the water. I won't go," he insisted stubbornly to Aang as the Captain directed a few of the sailors transferred onto the lifeboat. "She needs to be able to find us."

"Once Katara has found Zuko she'll stay with him," Aang explained. "That's why she didn't come look for us. She's with the first lifeboat."

They all stared at him, dumbfounded as he urged Appa on to the island.

x.x.x.x

The first lifeboat survived the journey without falling from the sky and the seasoned soldiers were creating a makeshift camp on the beach, including a signal fire to be seen by either a passing ship or one of the other two airships still in the sky. Appa and the gang arrived slightly before the second lifeboat, Appa's paddling feet quicker than a sail on the calm post-storm breeze.

Appa walked right up on shore, bypassing the small sandy beach area and settled beneath a canopy of trees on solid land. The gang scampered onto dry ground, Toph visibly relaxing as her toes scraped against the hard rock. One minute she was sighing in bliss at the feel of ground beneath her feet and the next she frowned, flicking her fingers to the side at something behind her. Rogers yelped as unyielding stone closed around his ankles as shackles.

"What is this?" Captain asked, stepping forward to defend his subordinate.

"I don't see Zuko anywhere," Aang said, his timing perfect. "Do you think he might be in the forest?"

"I think it's more likely he's at the bottom of the ocean," Sokka said with a glare, stepping between the Captain and Rogers with his sword in his hand. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this, Captain. This is my sister we're talking about and it is starting to look like this guy killed Zuko and tried to kill her. It isn't going to be pretty for anyone involved," Sokka declared menacingly.

The Captain looked like he was going to throw up, turning a color of green not found in nature except maybe skimming the top of a swamp. "He must be here," the Captain insisted, straightening his uniform as he marched down the beach. Sokka trailed behind, slapping his sword against his palm menacingly. The rest followed, a parade of anger and mourning.

Suki's fingers were twitching around her fans and the small throwing daggers she had fashioned after Ty Lee's weapons of choice, but she didn't do anything as overt as Sokka. She didn't want give away the only defence she had, which was surprise. Most of these men feared the Avatar because of who he was and they had heard rumours of Katara's Waterbending skills from those who had seen her in action. They were even wary of Sokka considering the size of his sword and the stubborn set of his enraged face. None of them knew who she was and she liked it that way.

As always the Avatar team backed each other up, flanking the Captain as he approached the sailors from the first airship. He marched right up to the man who had taken charge, someone who looked familiar but wasn't one of the soldiers or guards. For one, he wasn't wearing a uniform, though that wasn't entirely integral since they had been dragged out of bed at night, but he also didn't straighten or show the Captain any sign of respect as he approached.

"Where is the Fire Lord?" the Captain demanded.

"He must have been on one of the other lifeboats," Makiz responded indifferently.

"Policy says the Fire Lord is always evacuated first. No lifeboats leave until he does! You know the rules apply to everyone on The Aurora, not just my men."

A crowd was forming around the two of them, whispers surging backwards like a wave of sound.

"The Fire Lord is dead?" one particularly loud bystander asked.

Makiz shrugged. "I went to his room and he wasn't there. He was probably with his new _wife_. Why don't you ask her where he is?"

"I don't like this guy," Sokka said loudly.

"I don't either," the Captain said with satisfaction. He turned to his men, including the Avatar and his friends in his gaze. "Detain everyone on the first lifeboat."

Makiz sputtered and the men simply looked lost, glancing at people who had been, up until the night before, fellow soldiers in arms or at least neighbours and confidants.

"For the murder of Fire Lord Zuko," the captain continued.

Everyone was in motion at once, some trying to flee and others giving chase. With the help of Toph and Aang's Earthbending skills, a crude jail formed out of rock, solid and impermeable against murderers or mutineers. Sokka's sword did a great deal of talking for him and he hovered next to the door of the jail until every suspect was rounded up and the entrance was closed.

The Captain's hand fell heavily on his shoulder as Sokka stood, still guarding the prisoners. "Come," he said, face haggard and aged years in the span of hours. "We will be meeting the sun in memory of our Fire Lord. We will honour your sister as well. She who risked her life for our Fire Lord is worthy of our respect."

"Katara's not dead," Sokka insisted, but the words sounded hollow and empty to his ears.

"I pray you are right," the Captain said quietly, turning to look at the makeshift prison. "Terrible, terrible business."

He walked down to the beach, leaving Sokka to follow. On the way there Suki joined them, falling into step with Sokka and taking his hand in hers. "We won't accept they're dead yet," she told him quietly. "Tonight we'll take Appa and search again. Your sister is stronger under the moon."

"Katara stopped needed the power of the moon a long time ago," Sokka reminded her angrily. They glanced at each other, frustration evident on Sokka's face as Suki stared mildly at him.

"Do you still believe she's alive?" Suki asked.

"Of course I do," he snapped. "This is Katara we're talking about. You've seen her, she does three impossible things before breakfast without breaking a sweat. She's still alive somewhere, I know it. She can't die."

"Then stop moping and take action!" Suki told him.

"I'm not moping!" Sokka pouted.

Suki shook her head but tightened her grasp on Sokka's hand as they reached the beach. In the wide, expansive area the soldiers and Fire Nation delegates not involved in what was starting to look like a Fire Lord assassination were lined up in the sand, standing at attention as they faced the sun. It just so happened they were facing the ocean as well, and Sokka felt tears well up in his eyes at the unwitting association of Fire and Water. It was as if nature had planned the tribute to coincide with this time of day, when everything was aligned to honour both of their missing comrades.

"Zuko being dead would solve a lot of problems," he mentioned casually to Suki, not meaning it.

"Only for you. Maybe Aang. And only on the level of freeing Katara from marriage to him. I know that soon you'd miss your buddy, and on a global level his death is catastrophic."

Sokka frowned as they met up with Toph and Aang on the edge of the military formation, ruining the look of the straight formation with their clustered group.

Aang looked like someone killed his best friend, all fight gone out of him. When the Captain took his position in front of the men and women of the Fire Nation, Aang looked towards him with respect.

"Isn't it too soon to count them out?" Sokka hissed out of the corner of his mouth, suddenly irrationally infuriated that everyone just assumed Katara would fail at her mission. Katara never failed anything in her life once she set out to do it. Everyone was behaving as if Zuko was gone for good and Katara had gone with him.

"What's going to happen to us now?" one of the soldiers called out, asking the Captain.

The Captain stared him down.

"Will we all be punished?" another asked.

"Who will be Fire Lord?"

"Quiet!" The Captain yelled. "You should all be ashamed, thinking of yourselves when your Lord lies dead at the bottom of the ocean."

The men immediately fell silent and after a moment the Captain raised his hand and all the Firebenders shot a bolt of fire towards the sun. Every individual flare of fire joined and created a great ball, burning over the ocean and blocking out the real sun for a moment, intense and burning hot in all of their faces. Everyone stared into the flames as it smouldered brightly in the sky. Some had tears in their eyes from grief, others from the hot waves and intense light of the fireball.

A geyser of water poured out of the ocean, dousing the fire as a great wave smashed against the shore, soaking all of them with brine. It hovered over them for a moment, threatening with the promise of crashing. The wave came out of nowhere and was so strong a few of the men fell backwards as it crashed into them. It was gone almost as soon as it arrived.

"YES!" Sokka exclaimed, jumping up with his fist pumping the air even before the water reached him. He landed on Suki, causing her to laugh and pitch forward into the wave. Sokka got a mouthful of ocean for his exuberance, seaweed sticking to the top of his head, and Suki batted at him to remove him from her back, sand adhering to her face. He was halfway to his feet when he stopped and stared like the rest of them. In great wave starting with Captain, each member from the Fire Nation fell prostrate to the ground, hands extended above their heads and their chests pressed against the wet sand.

Left standing were Zuko and Katara, bone dry at the base of the tide line. Water lapped at Katara's feet and she appeared worn out but unharmed, floating ethereal atop the water. The two of them stood together for a moment, not touching, not smiling. Katara appeared as a mythical spirit come to life, the tempestuous countenance of the Great Water Goddess Kateon and Zuko as her companion. He looked just as furious, taking a step forward towards his people.

"Captain Alzond?" Zuko called out, his voice strong against the silence.

Sokka snapped his fingers. "That's his name!" he exclaimed in a mock whisper to his friends, already past the fact that Katara and Zuko were alive. He hadn't doubted at all that they were show up eventually, and was impressed by the dramatics of Katara's timing. He wanted to laugh, dance, and run up and hug his sister and maybe even that bastard Zuko as well. His exuberance was stayed by what was said next.

Zuko continued. "What happened to my ship?"

* * *

A/N: I don't work with third-person omniscient, ever, but this chapter seemed to be calling for something along those lines. There was too much to tell besides Katara's POV, so I hope you'll all forgive my inconsistency. When Katara is in a scene, you'll always see the narrative as third-person limited, but the style will get murkier when she isn't present. Personally, I kind of like it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks to all who offered to Beta. It took me a while but I finally identified my needs as being someone intimately familiar with the Avatar universe rather than someone to edit or help with plot. A round of applause to WizardsofAllGenres for fulfilling that role.


End file.
